This one is for the employees out there. The old manner of thinking would have you assume that the employer holds all the power in that relationship, when in fact it’s closer to a 50/50 split. While it can be hard to see this perspective depending on your financial situation, it could be the epiphany you might have been waiting for. And the key to this concept is rising wages and salaries.

This is all about mindset and the perspective on which side of the coin you are viewing. To an employer, a salary might represent how much they are willing to pay their employee to perform the work. But too often it seems that the employee is sucked into that same view instead of thinking that their salary is how much they are worth. And herein lies the key to this perspective, positive thinking and seeing the control you have within this relationship. Using a word like “worth” describes value, more specifically your value to that company, and believe me when I say that the employer should value that you chose to work for them.

A typical fiscal year would generally flow with cost-of-living increases dictated by inflation and supply/demand, and salaries would often follow in tow. But really think deeper into why wages and salaries increase. Sure, you can imagine that “well, wages have to increase because goods and services are more expensive”, but that is not the whole picture. A good employer should definitely factor that concept into their payroll increases each year because of empathy towards their workforce, but unfortunately, it is not true for every industry or employer, and you as an employee might be taken advantage of through complacency.

Enter the pandemic. This phenomenon shook the employment world up in a massive way. Not only did it shutdown businesses with restrictions and lockdowns, which greatly impacted supply chains and the supply/demand economic forecasting, but it also shook up the mindsets of the employed. Suddenly, we all had time to think and room to breathe. We began to contemplate what the meaning of our lives were; whether we were living to work or working to live. And regardless of the balance between those two for each person, it made them think critically about their future of working and where they were heading. Since the beginning of the pandemic, a significant chunk of the working force in Canada considered changing jobs or even their entire careers because of this epiphany. Because why would you continue to do a job that you finally had the time to realize was making you miserable and negatively affecting your self-esteem. Digging deeper, they began to also question their wages and salaries too. Why would you stay at a job that is paying you less than you are worth? The reason in the past was complacency, but now these workers saw the truth of what’s important and they became empowered.

And because of this empowerment, we saw a massive shift in how workers see the working world. Not only are they now petitioning their employers for more flexible policies regarding remote work and casual work, but they are also demanding their full worth compensation from companies. And with the cost of living increasing in Canada and much of the world, it’s about time that the employers see that they are all fighting and competing for your affections as a worker. You deserve to be wined and dined like a high stakes bachelor/ette as opposed to a late night booty call. Because you are worth it.