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Inflation’s up. Your workload’s up. But your pay rise? Still barely enough to cover an extra latte a week. According to the 2025 Employment and Salary Report from people2people, Frog Recruitment and Edge Recruitment, only 34% of employees are satisfied with their salary — down from last year. And almost half (49%) think their pay doesn’t reflect the workload or performance they’re delivering. This wasn’t a tiny survey, either — over 1,150 employers, 2,300 job seekers, and 10,000 employees across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK took part. The takeaway? Employers are mostly sticking to the “safe” 1–3% rise range, even as living costs climb and workloads expand. It’s not always stinginess — many cite budget constraints, market volatility, or wanting to “stay competitive” (translation: not actually pay competitively). The problem is, 1–3% doesn’t bridge the gap between your rent, your shopping, and your actual value to the company. If you want a bigger pay rise in 2025, you’ll need to do more than point at your bills. You need to tie your request to business outcomes:
But here’s the thing: sometimes the smartest move isn’t to fight for more money — it’s to look at the whole package. Chatting to a friend last week, she’s thinking about moving from an EA role in health to a coordinator position in a private school. The base salary’s a little lower than what she’s on now. But when we looked at the rest of the package?
On paper, it’s a “pay cut.” In reality, it could be a lifestyle upgrade — more time, less stress, and doors opening for the future. The same report shows there’s a huge range of other benefits employers are offering that are worth negotiating:
In other words, there’s more than one way to get “paid.” Sometimes it’s about freeing up more time, covering personal expenses, or funding your growth — all of which can be worth as much (or more) than a small bump in base pay. Next week, we’ll talk about one of the biggest “what elses” — asking for a pay rise because you’re being told to spend more time back in the office. ~Lisa Your Q&AATS Doesn’t Care About Your Colour Scheme Hi Lisa, I have a PDF resume that has been formatted with white font on a black background. I use it for networking events, direct email, etc, but I wanted to ask if it will cause problems with an ATS? I asked ChatGPT, and it said yes, it would. Linda Hi Linda, Let’s get straight to the point — the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) does not give care about colour schemes. It’s not a fashion critic. It’s a robot. White text on a black background is still just text in its eyes — assuming, and here’s the real kicker, that it’s actually text in the first place. See, ATS doesn’t care about pretty. It cares about whether your file contains machine-readable words it can copy and paste. If your “resume” is actually a flat image (thanks, Canva/Photoshop/InDesign), the ATS can’t read it no matter what shade of white you picked. PDF or not, it’s like handing in a glamour shot of yourself instead of a job application — nice to look at, totally useless. So, colour? Not the issue. File format? Big issue. If you want it ATS-safe, keep a clean, text-based MS Word version in your back pocket. And for networking? Well, a black background is about as easy on the eyes as a torch in a dark room. Sure, it’ll stand out… just maybe not for the reason you want. Thanks for writing in. ~Lisa |
