<prompt> Human: So I currently am an Mechanical Engineer working in Orange County California and I feel like I am severely getting shafted by my employer. I currently have 3 years of experience with a degree and about another 3.5 years of internship experience which was very hands on doing calculations, design and build in a small specialty renewable energy company. I am currently doing new product developmentRD in a manufacturing company. We recently got raises at our company by it was a measly 1, barely bumping me up to 69k. The small percentage of raise was based on our sales team not meeting the desired target amount for the year. I talked to my boss about this and told him I dont feel that it is right that the raise is so small due to the fact that my performanceaccording to him has been excellent and my job does not impact sales. I told my boss also that I feel I am underpaid per industry standard, but he said there was nothing he can do. This situation has been really frustrating to me as I know engineers at my company with less experience are making more than myself.Am I right to feel this way? I feel like with my experience, I should be making about 10-15 more. I am guessing it should be time to start looking for another place of employment.  <response>: Check out some of the salary sites and start applying around. I will tell you that Im an ME with about 8 years experience and I only make about 20 more than you do. That said, Im in a low COL area and the company I work for isnt known for high salaries. 