<prompt> Human: Apologies if this is the wrong sub, but the salary sub is pretty much dead, so figured this would get more traction here.I work for a popular youth media company. This company has had a long-held bad reputation for poor pay; however, higher-ups recently decided to change the tide and raised the minimum salary at the company to 45k. This is coming less than a year after they had bumped up the minimum salary to 35k; prior to this many recent grads were making a pittance, in the neighborhood of 20k-30k.A year and a half ago I was hired at 50k to essentially run a department that my boss oversees; after 6 months I became a manager with no pay bump, was told they wouldnt give me a raise until a year, a lie I believed with one direct report. In less than a year, I was managing 4 people. Still no raise, boss gave me various B.S. reasons for the lack of a raise, but promised me more money was coming, I just had to be patient. In this time, my work was praised and I was so-needed at work, that any days off I still had to field 50 emails and help out with emergencies.At the end of 2015 FY, my boss put in for a 20 raise for me, which would put me at 60k. She told me it would go in effect in January. Cut to January, still no raise. She told me it was coming. At the start of March, she told me that my raise would kick in on March 31. March 31 came and went, still no raise -- but heres the kicker: all of my direct reports who were making less than 45k were all simultaneously bumped up to the new minimum salary, regardless of merit or seniority. This new policy came completely out of the blue and took all of my direct reports by surprise. My assistant, who I had seriously been considering firing, got nearly a 30 raise! Just for existing! I am obviously livid over this news -- I talked to my boss about it, and she tells me she understands my plight and promises to go to bat for me. To spare you all the details, after talking with HR and higher-ups my boss lets me know that my, and other more senior people in the department, including her, raises are frozen and that HR was not going to scale the salaries with respect to the new minimum wage. My boss then decides to take a spontaneous vacation.So, here I am. I am still very angry. I am making only 5k more than the people I supervise and I have 7 years of experience over them. I dont know what to believe. I feel like my boss was giving me lip service the entire time. At present, I am planning on leaving the company and have been applying to other jobs left and right but nothing has materialized. Insofar as my performance goes if you are curious if that had anything to do with the lack of raise, I have received nothing but praise. My job is integral to the department and the company as a whole. In short, if I left, my boss would be totally screwed as she has next to zero idea how to do my job. My direct reports could take over but they lack both the maturity and experience to handle my job without major hiccups. What is the best way to handle this? If I got a job offer today, I wouldnt think twice about putting in my two weeks, but I really do want to get the prorated raise. A check with a 20 bump postdated to Jan 1 would be nice. Do any fellow redditors have experience with this? What do you recommend insofar as leaving AND recouping my losses?Thank you in advance for any insight you may have. TL;DR: My company gave all my direct reports pay bumps but didnt scale mine. I now only make 5k more than the kids I supervise.  <response>: Update your resume and start grinding applications. 