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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/stemlund on 2025-05-31 05:13:31+00:00.

I’d been at the same job for over 15 years with only small cost of living raises, annually. I began to realize my current salary was 30-40% lower than the average salary for my industry in my particular part of the US. I also had been learning new skills and applying these skills to work projects while executing work ahead of schedule.

I asked for a raise to match the average salary I researched. I expected to receive a fraction of what I was asking for as a token acknowledgement. Instead, my boss said they don’t give raises for working harder, taking on more work, or to match an industry average salary, etc. He then said I can certainly, “shop it around” - meaning go look for another job that will pay me what I was asking.

My first form of malicious compliance was lowering my work output to match the low salary.

Then, I did what my boss said, and “shopped it around” and found a new job that offered me a salary that was 66% higher than my current salary.