MITRE reviews

Salary -- the cons related to pay are many. 1. You need to get the highest salary and pay grade possible when hired because raises are low and promotions take a long time. 2. There is a great deal of disparity in salaries for the same work output at the same pay grade, and I'm factoring in years of experiencing -- it is so dependent on who hired you and who your Department Head is/has been that I have heard from one task/project lead that they were making less than a recent hire, with limited experience (fresh out of school), that they supervised. 3. As far as I can tell, the annual increase has absolutely nothing to do with actual performance at least it hasn't for me -- in strong years with challenging projects and significant contributions I've received embarrassingly low almost insulting increases with BS explanations. In other years, where my workload was less challenging I have received much higher increases. As an employee, this is demoralizing. 4. Then there is how low increases can be - this results in your paycheck never changing or not enough to notice, over several years, because the cost of benefits increased more than your annual increase -- and I am discussing pay rate increases not the employees who have maxed-out their pay grade and are given lump sums rather than increases. 5. There is also the awkwardness of the annual discussion with management where they inform you of your "increase." What makes it awkward? This may be the only time that year your DH spoke to you and you're never sure what to say as they often seem to expect a Thank You as if it is their personal money or that you are unaware that you 2 or 3 percent raise does not keep pace with inflation and that you didn't do the math and realize that your health insurance etc. went up 10% or whatever essentially negating the 2 or 3% increase or reducing it to near nothing.