Am I getting screwed at my job?
 

I have worked at an awards shop since 2002. My father is the GM who runs the place, but the owners are a couple of old investors that are hands-off. My job is to design every award that comes through the door, and we do everything from trophies, plaques, glass and acrylic awards, medals, ribbons, t-shirts, hats, custom engravings, you name it. I use two laser engravers and a sublimation printer. I use CorelDraw and Photoshop for everything. A lot of times I have to design artwork for lazy customers who can't get us something usable. I have a very very good record of not screwing things up, which is easy to do.

I started at 8.50 an hour and I now make 13.50. I haven't had a raise in 2 and a half years, and it was a dollar raise. We probably do between 3,000-6,000 dollars per day in business. We only have about 7 employees currently. I was told this past Christmas that the owners weren't giving Christmas bonuses. I usually have gotten like 150 bucks or so every Christmas. We had a pretty good year...

Every time I rarely, politely ask for a raise I'm told by the owners or my father that I should be happy with what I make, and if I want more money I should help the company make more money...should I get the hell outta here?

yes

I would certainly be exploring my options.

Good God. Eject, eject, eject!

http://www.ejectionsite.com/eyewitne...nthroatsm1.jpg

Yes.

Sounds like you want to leave and you've already answered your question.

If you're unhappy, start looking around.

Do you have any education?

I'm currently taking college classes at night trying to complete my Associates in Fire Science. I was wanting to be a firefighter or something related to the fire protection industry, but now...I just don't know. I'm over halfway done.

I do have over 10 years experience doing what I do, but I just don't know what's out there involving what I've been doing.

If you can find better money in this economy, then yes.

$13.50/hr is probably pretty good for Tulsa.

The equivalent for Cost of Living in San Diego is $20.17/hr.

It sounds like you and your dad know how to run a place like that and you would probably be better served to break off from the owners and start your own place.

Pretty much all American Workers are getting screwed at their job, and not in the good way.

My dad has been wanting to buy the place, but he just has awful awful credit and he only makes about 50-60k himself.

Can the business expand? Can you becoming a manager help that expansion? Can you be co-manager with your dad?

Send this company a resume. Its in Independence. It's owned by a guy I used to work for. I left one of his other companies for more money at my current job:

http://www.rpawards.com/

I basically manage the place as is. He's not around much, and when he is, he doesn't do anything very often. There is literally no room for growth as far as my position is concerned. I'm good at what I do and it would be hard for him to replace me considering I've been doing all of our customers shit for 10 years.

I really hate the place, and am bored with my job. Really grown complacent and burnt out. But ya know..I got rent, car payment, insurance, food. Stuff I gotta have. I just don't know what options to explore. I'm good with Corel and Photoshop with what we do HERE, but a lot of the stuff we do is pretty simple compared to a lot of "graphic artists".