<prompt> Human: I am an RN who makes a good salary. Our annual pay increase is 2 below cost of living and has been since the 2008 recession. I work for a private, for profit hospital and we are very profitable as per public records. Our CEO has been with the company for 40 years only place of employment and is tightening the purse strings across the board. I do agree with some of the changes as I believe them to be smart and reasonably prudent moves to keep the company healthy. In making these decisions she has laid off hundreds of long term employees who were getting close to retirement. 2 days before the paychecks with the annual increase came out my VP, who I directly report to, pulled me aside in a busy hallway and said While we have never had a salary ceiling before, we are going to have one now and it will affect you as the highest earner on the team. It does not affect anyone else on our team. I am not the longest employee- I have only been there a little over 10 years. But I always negotiated for increases and always supported my arguments with productivity and profits, etc. and I have done well. So now I am 8 years from retirement. If I stay I will never get a raise. There are some small bonuses that are team driven not individual. I would get probably 1-2K a year in bonus. If I quit I wont be able to get another job at this salary as I am making quite a bit now. I cant help but feel undervalued. I am sad and angry. Part of me says to suck it up and just take it and part of me says well you can have my ass in the chair but dont expect me to continue the late nights, weekends, holidays that I have always worked uncompensated because I was exempt. Was I just being an idiot thinking I was part of a team? What do I do?  <response>: If you dont like where you work, work somewhere else. The skills of an RN are in demand pretty much everywhere, and you dont have to just work for a hospital either. If they are paying you more than you could get from other employers, it sounds like you arent undervalued. Youre clearly seeing some writing on the wall here though, that the company doesnt value you as much as they once did, and that they are willing to lay off expensive employees nearing retirement. That means that you should be preparing to leave your job by having a solid emergency fund, and giving yourself as much flexibility as is practical in finding a new employer. 