I Survived: 5 Years at an MSP and Got a $2K Total Raise
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I need to tell this story because I know someone reading this is living it right now. You're the person who started on helpdesk, worked your way up, took on more responsibility, and somehow you're earning less than the person who just walked in the door. I was that person. Here's how it went.
I started at a mid-size MSP in Adelaide in 2019. Helpdesk role, $55K. The ad said "growth opportunities" and "dynamic team." I was 24, fresh out of a networking cert, and just wanted my foot in the door.
The work was good. I learned fast. Within 18 months I was doing Level 2 work — server builds, M365 migrations, basic networking. By year two, I was the unofficial senior on the helpdesk because the actual senior had left and they never replaced him.
The Pattern
Every year, I'd ask for a review. Every year, I'd get the same thing.
"Your work is excellent. We really value you. Things are tight right now, but we'll look at it next quarter."
Next quarter never came. But the workload did. By year three, I was doing Level 3 work. Exchange migrations. Server rack builds. On-call rotations that nobody else wanted. I was doing the job of a senior sysadmin on a helpdesk salary.
Then I found out about the new hires.
A colleague — good guy, competent, but with less experience than me — joined the team at $65K. For the role I'd been doing for two years. I knew because he showed me his offer letter. He felt bad about it. I felt sick.
I went to my manager. Showed him the market data. Explained that I was doing senior-level work at junior pay. He said he'd "look into it."
Two weeks later, he came back with a $2K raise. $57K. After five years.
I asked if that was a typo. It wasn't.
The Realisation
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The $2K raise wasn't a raise. It was an insult dressed up as a gesture. In five years, factoring in inflation, I'd effectively taken a pay cut. Meanwhile, the MSP was billing clients $160-200/hour for my work and paying me the equivalent of about $30/hour.
I did the math. The MSP was making roughly $100/hour profit on my labour. At 40 hours a week, that was $4,000 a week in margin. $208,000 a year. From me alone. And they couldn't spare more than $2,000 in additional annual salary.
I started job hunting that night.
The Escape
I'd been too loyal and too comfortable to look before. That was my mistake. The MSP industry survives on the assumption that good people won't leave because the effort of job hunting feels harder than the misery of staying.
Within three weeks, I had two offers. One was at a competitor MSP — $80K, senior sysadmin title. The other was at a mid-size accounting firm in the CBD — $85K, internal IT lead.
I took the accounting firm. Better hours, better culture, and I'd never have to watch a new hire get paid more than me while being told I was "like family."
When I handed in my notice, my manager looked genuinely surprised. "What can we do to keep you?" he asked.
"Funny you should ask," I said. "You had five years to answer that."
What I'd Tell Others
The "like family" line is a retention tactic, not a relationship. Families don't pay their kids below market rate. Families don't promise reviews and never deliver. "Like family" means "we're hoping guilt will keep you cheap."
If you're not getting a raise, you're getting a pay cut. Every year your salary stays flat while inflation runs at 3-4% and the MSP's billing rates go up, you're earning less in real terms. A $2K raise on $55K after 5% inflation isn't a raise. It's a further pay cut.
Loyalty is rewarded by leaving, not staying. The biggest salary jumps come from changing jobs. In my case, I went from $57K to $85K — a 49% increase — by switching employers. The MSP wasn't going to do that for me. They never were.
Know your market rate. Check Seek, Indeed, Hays salary guides, and Robert Half. If you don't know what your role pays, you can't negotiate. The MSP is hoping you won't check.
Your manager's "looking into it" is code for "I'm hoping you'll forget." If they don't give you a concrete answer within two weeks, they don't have one. Start looking.
What I Learned
- Annual reviews without salary outcomes are just performance theatre. If you're being reviewed but never adjusted, the review process exists to make you feel valued, not to actually value you.
- The best time to job hunt is when you don't need to. Don't wait until you're desperate. Explore your options when you're stable. Desperation makes you accept bad offers.
- Internal movement beats external movement, but external movement beats nothing. If your MSP won't promote you, the market will. Every time.
- Salary transparency protects everyone. When my colleague showed me his offer letter, it wasn't awkward — it was illuminating. Talk about money with your peers. The only people who benefit from salary secrecy are the people paying you.
- "We can't afford it" from a profitable MSP is a choice, not a fact. They can afford it. They're choosing not to spend it on you. Make your choice accordingly.
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