u/Confident_War2150

This is a very gen Z complaint, but I am indeed a gen Z. I just want to know what lies ahead as far as pay the longer I stay at my lab. I intend on staying, I like working here, but in the few years I've been here, my hospital has done two cost of living raises which has equaled about an additional 2 dollars per hour (no idea if that is super good or kinda meh, it hasn't felt any different in my day to day), and not a single merit raise, for anyone. My fear is that inflation is going to quickly outpace my earning potential, which I understand is happening to everyone in every field, but I would like to know how deep I will be under the inflation line in the next ten or twenty years and how quickly I need to start a side gig.

I don't even know what my older coworkers make, my supervisors make or even the admin lab director. I have tried to politely hint at the fact that I would like to know, and have even shared my own salary (mostly because I needed help understanding a paystub in the beginning) but to no avail. I understand that talking about pay in the workplace was taboo for a long time before, but we literally have signs posted around the hospital saying it is ok to talk about your pay. The only resource that has given any sort of information on pay about my hospital is the google overview which is most likely inaccurate and glassdoor requires my email, linkedin and soul to access info. The job listings for my lab are also not updated, they actually haven't been updated since I was hired. Is anyone else facing this challenge? How do I approach asking about this (other than just being upfront, I do not think that will be received well), or do I just accept I will probably never know?

I am still on the fence about backyard vs venue for my wedding and the only backyard we really have available to us has a steep slope down to the more flat area. I am afraid my older relatives won't fair well on the slope, so has anyone ever rented an accessibility ramp for this purpose? I am open to any alternative suggestions too.

For the backyard we would have to rent a tent too so I feel this would also be helpful for the people who come set up the tent and basically for anyone else who needs to get heavy supplies down the hill.

Also on top of that, picking between venue and backyard is hard because venue is very expensive, and tent is slightly less expensive but still very expensive. This part really isn't a question but more a, "I feel like a make good money in the field I worked very hard to get degreed in but in light of the current economy and the out of control wedding prices, I feel poor and unaccomplished." I don't want anything crazy for the wedding, but I feel like the bare minimum is super expensive. Anyway thank you for reading, would love some advice about the ramp. 😄