<prompt> Human: I work at a professional job making about 36k a year. Im actually financially stable -- I live in an area with an extremely low cost of living.Been here a year. Over the past six months, our branch manager was laid off, and a new one was named. He mentioned annual raises, etc. The first instance was allowing me to go back to school for a highly desired degree in my field -- occupational safety. He wanted me to become an industrial hygienist. I was stoked. I was told he will simply cut a check for my tuition. I got into the process of applying, and he told me to even expense my transcript fees. Thats when, out of nowhere, he told me it wasnt happening. Ouch.The second time I was promised a benefitraise, was him telling me he was going to fire the office manager who has been here 20 years. Shes awful. Everyone hates her for good reason, etc. It doesnt matter here though. He already told me that I will be promoted in her place to office manager. He even went so far to say that I will receive a 10,000 raise! Holy shit! I thought it was legit, since he was talking about the salary with the president, and he told lots of employees he was getting rid of her. But alas, he sat on his hands. He wont let her go. She is a major cause of job stress for all of us -- even getting rid of her and naming a better office manager would have been a huge standard of living raise for everyone involved. He told me hell still try to get me a raise, though. And its been a while. Basically he has a history of telling people things like this and not following through. Hes quite inexperienced in our industry, but I dont think this is an excuse. Hes now hiring on another full-time safety person, and hes told us all and it doesnt even seem like this is going to happen.Basically, I need advice to follow through with this consolation prize type raise. I know I should probably be looking for another job -- I am. However, jobs in the impoverished Appalachian region I live in are hard to come by I have a few things tying me hereIn addition to advice on getting him to follow through with this secondary raise he offered, what is usually a fair percentage salary increase to aim for? I am a woman, and at least in my industry industrial maintenance, construction men are usually seen as the bargainers and women are expected to take what they are given.Edit: I do have the first raise promise in writing -- the 10k. He texted me this amount while he was at dinner with the president discussing me. He even had the 5k now, 5k in 6 months stipulation in there.  <response>: Help me understand the thought process here. Say he agrees to a raise, as he has already. Then what? It seems like hes already agreed to give you a raise, so you dont need more agreements or more targets. You just need him to do it, which may never happen. 