HR’s new favorite phrase: "We pay based on Cost of Labor, not Cost of Living."

I asked for an inflation adjustment because rent skyrocketed. HR denied it, saying the "cost of labor" for a marketer in my city hasn’t gone up, even if inflation has. It’s a brilliant, evil corporate loophole. How do you argue against market data when your real-world bills are drowning you?

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I actually have never heard HR say that, but nothing surprises me these days. They never want to pay people what they are worth or give out raises, even if they are deserved. I wouldn't even keep arguing with them because they probably won't change their stance. I truly think I would just start looking for other opportunities.

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It’s so frustrating and discouraging!

It’s always been this way, just not spoken aloud. Salaries and day rates go up when they have to in order to get people in. No other reason.

What’s changed now is that it’s even more apparent. Like they can’t even be bothered to pretend it’s anything else.

They will still be surprised when people don’t volunteer to work nights and weekends.

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That’s terrible, but it’s HR. Your company needs marketing and advertising to generate customers. Your company only needs HR because it hit a certain size. Can you be having this conversation with your manager? And I would use this knowledge as ammunition. Grab some salary data from here at Glassdoor to demonstrate the ‘cost of labor’ in your conversation.

"Cost of Labor" is corporate for "we benchmark against whoever's paying the least in your market." The counter-move: stop arguing inflation and start arguing your market value. Pull competing offers — real or exploratory — from similar roles at companies paying above your benchmark. Nothing recalibrates a company's "cost of labor" data faster than a competing offer. HR can dismiss your rent increase. They can't as easily dismiss losing you to someone paying $15K more for the same title.

I would also like to stress that we stop working without compensation. Working weekends for pitches, late nights because they overbooked you during the week or client went over rounds on a project. Keep those boundaries up.

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