Employee of 37 years gets a $58k offer from a rival company, and their employer suddenly finds room for a 12% raise the moment they start considering leaving

• That last part is worth sitting with for a second. After nearly four decades of loyalty, the company did not find room for a meaningful raise until a competing offer materialized. The math on that is a little uncomfortable. It means the raise was always possible. It just was not necessary until now.

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  via thestandingdesk

  Older man working on a laptop at a standing desk by office windows while a coworker works in the background.

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• Thinking About Leaving a Company After 37 Years for a 31.8% Raise

• I've been with the same company (more than 70K employees) for about 37 years, and I suddenly got an offer from a smaller company.

• They're offering me $58K more than what I'm making now, which comes out to about a 31.9% increase. And that feels like a really huge pay bump. They also have a retirement plan with a 4% match, plus profit sharing in the range of 6-8%

• The big problem is that medical, dental, vision, and other benefits are much more expensive, which reduces the $58k difference by about $22k, and I'd also be giving up 9 vacation days. The big company also has some other benefits that the smaller place doesn't offer.

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  via thestandingdesk

  Two men standing at a high table in a modern office having a business discussion beside a window.

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• I've been loyal to my current company for a long time. I have a strong retirement account, and I'm lucky that I started here before the company went public, so I also have a pension with them.

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  via thestandingdesk

  Two coworkers standing at a tall desk reviewing information together on a laptop near office windows.

  ^{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• Now my current company, without me bringing anything up, is suddenly offering me a 12% raise. That makes the whole thing feel strange, as if they somehow know I have another offer waiting for me.

• 
  via thestandingdesk

  Older man working on a laptop at a standing desk in a modern apartment with coffee and window light nearby.

  ^{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• $58k in additional income is a lot to walk away from, but I'm very conflicted about making a change after being with the same employer for so many years. Has anyone been in a similar situation before? Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks.

  Old-Air3659

• The competing offer looks great on paper and gets considerably less exciting once you factor in the real numbers. A $58k bump becomes closer to $36k after accounting for the benefits gap, and that is before you factor in nine fewer vacation days, a smaller company with less stability, and walking away from a pension that most people in 2025 can only read about in history books. Pensions are basically folklore at this point. Having one is genuinely rare, and giving it up for profit sharing in the range of 6 to 8 percent is a trade that deserves a lot more scrutiny than the headline salary figure suggests.

• What makes this situation interesting is the psychological weight of 37 years. That is not nothing. The familiarity, the relationships, the institutional standing, the knowledge of exactly how everything works, all of that has real value that does not show up on a compensation comparison spreadsheet. Starting over at a smaller company at this stage of a career means rebuilding all of that from scratch, and smaller companies come with their own set of risks that a 70,000-person organization simply does not carry.

• The 12% counteroffer from the current employer is the most telling detail in this whole story. It confirms two things simultaneously: that they want to keep this person, and that they were underpaying them until it became a problem. Whether that is a reason to stay or a reason to feel annoyed enough to leave anyway is honestly a matter of personal philosophy at this point.

• The money is real. So is the pension. So are the 37 years.

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