Two important things for any employee are getting a fair wage and seeing salary growth over time. Ideally, the worker’s wages would keep pace with inflation and grow as a result of them becoming more skilled over the years. However, some bosses are notoriously cheap and think that any raise—no matter how small—fits the bill.

Case in point, former retail worker Sydney, @freddiebensoncousin, went viral on TikTok after sharing how her former boss would behave every time he’d give her a minuscule wage bump. Her clip got a whopping 3.4 million views. Scroll down for the full story and to see how the internet reacted to it. Bored Panda has reached out to Sydney via Instagram and we’ll update the article as soon as we hear back from her.

A good way to retain employees and keep them motivated is to offer them fair compensation and raises

Image credits: Mike Mozart (not the actual photo)

One Target employee shared her minuscule raise

Image credits: freddiebensonscousin

“So I was making $15.61, now I make $15.92.”

Another former retail worker revealed how small her own raises were, and her video went viral on TikTok

Image credits: freddiebensonscousin

“I work retail for 4 years and I remember so clearly my manager would come up to me every year and slip me a piece of paper and be like,’ Sydney, inside of this is your raise. You should be so proud of yourself.’ I’m like,’ Oh my God, that’s so crazy.’ Then he’d be like, ‘go look at it but just when you get in the break room’, don’t show anyone. I would open it, it was 10 cents. It would literally be 10 cents.”

Image credits: daveoratox (not the actual photo)

You can watch Sydney’s video, which got millions of views, right over here

@freddiebensonscousin #stitch with @Kaitlin Sondae started at $10 an hour in 2016 and never made it above $11 after 4 years #retail ♬ original sound – sydney

The reason for being stingy with raises depends on each boss and the company’s policy

Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)

The TikToker stitched her video with a clip made by Kaitlin Sondae, who started the discussion about low wages at Target.

According to Sydney, she worked in retail for 4 years, starting in 2016. Her wage was just $10 per hour when she started and never made it above $11 per hour by the time she moved on to better prospects. And it’s hard to imagine her wage going anywhere near that number when her boss would give her 10-cent raises every year.

The sad reality is that some managers, often members of older generations, fully believe that these tiny salary bumps are having a sizeable impact on their employees’ quality of life.

Others, however, are doing the whole song-and-dance thing to try and hide the fact that they’re cheap. They pretend like they’re doing their subordinates a favor when in reality they’re reigning in wages for the sake of bigger profits for the company.

Most Target employees have stated that they’re given annual raises, but it’s unclear how big they are

Image credits: Mike Mozart (not the actual photo)

Your wage at Target heavily depends on your position. According to Indeed, in 2023, cashiers working at the company make an average of $11.72 per hour while guest advocates get $15.34, baristas get $13.39, and general merchandise clerks bring in $16.62.

Meanwhile, food service workers get compensated $21,711 per year, directors of food and beverage earn $16.38 per hour, food and beverage managers get $20 per hour, and if you happen to be a director of product management, you’re likely to get an average salary of $202,261 per year.

You don’t necessarily need to be a manager to get a decent wage. For instance, warehouse workers are given $21.60 per hour at Target, on average. Meanwhile, packers ($16.40 per hour) and stockers ($14.55) earn more than cashiers.

Indeed reports that out of 45,733 current and former Target employees, barely 41% thought that they were being paid fairly. However, most of them said that they were given annual raises. It’s unclear how big these were, unfortunately.

Bosses who believe that tiny raises and bonuses are ‘life-changing’ aren’t as rare as you might think

Image credits: Lukas (not the actual photo)

This isn’t the first time that we’ve covered bosses dramatically telling their employees not to tell anyone about their ‘fantastic’ compensation. A while ago, Bored Panda spoke to content creator Sam Pelissero, the host of the Schmee Show, who’d gone viral on TikTok after sharing how his former boss had promised him a ‘life-changing’ bonus… of $250.

“I thought ‘is there supposed to be a few more zeros?’! Had my ex-boss not given the speech about it being life-changing, I would have not thought twice about the amount and never thought about it again,” Sam told Bored Panda during an interview about his initial reaction when he realized how small his bonus was.

“It speaks volumes to how many of us are taken advantage of in the workplace and grind our lives away for pennies. Just as a music artist would be nothing without their fans, companies would be nothing without their employees,” he said.

In his opinion, respecting employees and giving them fair pay is “the hardest hill for employers to climb.”

“Every person is on their own life journey and the sooner one realizes that, the more willing they are to be compassionate and not let their ego stand in the way,” the content creator wants to see employers be more empathetic toward their staff.

Here’s what the TikTok community had to say after they watched the clip

Some internet users even ended up sharing their own experiences with ridiculous raises

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