Sort of related to the original post...some of my experiences on pay which are of no relevance today.
A good few years ago when I went i started as an operator I was on roughly three times what my Dad was earning on the land. After ten good years the company I was with put us on the books (no choice, take or leave) at just under agricultural rates and they wondered why most of the long-timers were gone in under a year. Round here rates have now got back up to equivalently where they were at the outset. It’s always supply and demand. We have a constant issue with companies (agencies) trying to poach our drivers.
I’ve had the experience more than once of seeing some seat-filler appear on site on more money for less ability, and being told that they’ll be gone before me. That bit came true once as I was kept on extra hours to put right a batter that was between three foot high and two foot low, if you get the picture. All this when there were long-term guys on dumpers begging for a chance to get on a 360 or blade.
Also a lot of company’s seem to have forgotten that loyalty is a two way street. I went To work one place on the promise of a years work and got dropped after two weeks, as his contract with the gas board got undercut and he lost all the projected work, (not his fault, but that didn’t help me). Two years later I went back to him, had a full-on year, but when things slowed I asked for a bit of honesty, as I’d been offered something else to take me through winter. I was told I wouldn’t be the next one out the door, which was true, I was the next but one, but missed the boat for the winter work. Come January I was sorted with two solid years in front of me, and this guy couldn’t understand why I didn’t drop everything to go back to him to “help him out” for six weeks.
Tiny, you need to start looking round with your skill set. Either you’ll find something better paid and take it, or your present mob will match the money to keep you, but don’t be worried to look at the grass on the other side of the fence. End of the day when it comes time for them to downsize, rightsize or restructure, there’ll be no loyalty to you. Don’t accept that you’re “only” worth anything.