<prompt> Human: Hi everyone,Feeling kinda bummed and need some advice on some recent happenings with my job. Im currently making 109,000 in a specialized IT field in academia where theres not a lot of current openings in my region. Those who have my type of position stay for life. Ive only had the job for 2 years but consistently get stellar reviews from my leadership who credit me with changing the place around. Last year, after doing some research, I found out that my counterparts and peers at other institutions were making anywhere from 165,000 on the low end to 235,000 on the high end. When my performance review came around last year, I requested 175,000 with a new position description and justified it based on the salary study and how my current job description was out of date. I did a direct copypaste of the position description of my counterpart who makes 202,000, which outlined all of the increased responsibilities and the leadership role I was currently inhabiting. My boss agreed on the promotion and on the salary, but told me it would have to take effect in the next FY.That was last year. This year, when it came time to implement it, my boss revealed that I would get the promotion but at 145,000. I felt humiliated and undervalued after hearing this. He states that the university leadership was unwilling to go that high in my salary request because it would create tension with another highly paid IT exec at the same institution.So, here I am 1 year later after waiting patiently for this big promotion with a certain number I had in mind, and its all fizzled out. I know I should be appreciative of just getting a raise in general and that this is really a first world problem, but Im ranked below my other counterparts and peers for absolutely no good reason other than politics. To add insult to injury, I now have the position description of someone making 202,000 and would be effectively making around 60K less than that person.Should I call it quits and look elsewhere? Wouldnt you feel cheated also?  <response>: By your own admission finding a new comparable job will be difficult. Dont quit until you have said job offer in hand. 