It’s budget season, and leadership teams everywhere are staring at spreadsheets, trying to figure out how big a raise it will take to keep their best people from leaving in January. (I’ve been in those meetings. There’s always a lot of coffee and not a lot of answers.) 😂 But here’s what the spreadsheet won’t tell them. We asked 750 working adults whether they’d take a lower-paying job to work for a boss they loved, and more than half said yes.

What Is the ‘Boss Discount’?

Enter, the 'Boss Discount': the pay cut people will gladly take to keep working for a boss they love. (In plain English, a great boss is worth real money to the people who work for them.) It works in reverse, too. When the boss is the problem, a raise only buys you a few more months before that person updates their LinkedIn profile and starts taking calls from recruiters.

That’s why throwing money at a retention problem so rarely works. The money lands once a year. The boss shows up every day.

What Happens When People Don’t Have That Boss?

You’ve seen this person. They used to be the first one to take on the new project. Now they do exactly what’s in their job description, log off right on time, and they’ve stopped talking about the promotion they wanted last year. I call them, “The Paycheck Employee” - only doing what their paycheck requires…nothing more. Their skills are the same as they were a year ago. What changed is that they stopped believing their boss would ever have their back.

We asked 750 working adults what they’d do if they worked under negative leadership. More than half told us they’d quit or seriously think about quitting, and the same number said they’d stop volunteering for anything extra. Almost half said they’d stop going after promotions altogether.

So even the people who stay are quietly taking themselves off your bench. That’s how a company ends up with a full payroll and nobody ready to step up when a leader retires.

So Is Pay the Real Problem?

Partly. When we asked which growth opportunities would convince people to stay, regular chances to increase their pay were the top answer by far. Pay matters, and I’d never tell a leader to ignore it.

But when we asked which leadership behavior would convince people to stay longer, the number one answer wasn’t coaching or a mentoring program. It was this:

“My manager makes sure I get credit for the work I did.”

You’ve probably watched the opposite happen. Someone on the team stays late to fix the client presentation, and the next morning their boss walks it into the VP’s office and says, “Here’s what I put together.” That boss saved themselves five minutes of explaining. It may have cost the company that employee.

That’s why you must build a trait I call 'Trusted Integrity'…and this trait doesn’t just belong to you; it belongs to everyone on your team. It’s #1 out of 12 Bar Raiser™ traits, and it means integrity people can consistently bank on, including being honest about who did the work.

Here’s the ROI. When people trust that their boss will give them credit, they keep raising their hand, they go after the promotion, and they stay. That’s your next generation of leaders staying put instead of taking their talent and raising the bar for your competition. It can save your company thousands to millions down the road, and it doesn’t cost a dime.

How Do You Earn the ‘Boss Discount’? Use the Boss Discount Checklist.

Here are four things your people told us would keep them longer. Pick one and start tomorrow.

1. Give Credit Out Loud. Name the person who did the work, in front of the people whose opinion matters to them, the same week it happens. “Great job, team” doesn’t count, because nobody on the team knows who you actually noticed.
2. Tell the Truth, Kindly. Honest but helpful feedback was right behind credit on the list. Tell people where they stand while there’s still time for them to fix it, and tell them how.
3. Own Their Growth. Ask each person what they want to be doing in two years, write it down, and bring it up again next quarter. My first boss knew I wanted to be a professional singer, and he never once let me forget it.
4. Fix Poor Behavior Fast. When someone on the team crosses the line, address it that day. Your best people notice when you let it slide, and they’re the ones who end up carrying it.

The Tolerator Tell: A Tolerator isn’t a bad person. They’re a comfortable one, and comfort is how standards slip without anybody deciding to let them. If you’ve said “great job, team” more this month than you’ve said one person’s name, that’s your sign.

The Bar Raiser™ Move: Tomorrow, pick one person whose work made you look good this month, and tell your boss their name.

Your people can always find a bigger paycheck. A boss they’d take a pay cut to work for is a lot harder to find.

Tell me, who’s the boss you would have taken a pay cut to work for, and what did they do? Go give someone credit today, and keep raising the bar! 💪

Want your leaders to become the boss people would take a pay cut to work for? Book me to speak at your next leadership event or conference.

Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat is the ‘Boss Discount’?

The ‘Boss Discount’ is the pay cut people say they would accept to keep working for a boss they love, a term coined by leadership keynote speaker Betsy Allen-Manning. In the National Workplace Trends Study, more than half of 750 working adults said they would take a lower-paying job to work for a boss they loved,

What leadership behavior keeps employees the longest?

In the National Workplace Trends Study, the top leadership behavior that would convince employees to stay longer was a manager making sure they get credit for the work they did. It ranked ahead of honest feedback, integrity, and accountability.

Can a raise fix a retention problem caused by a bad manager?

A raise helps, since regular pay increases were the top growth factor employees named, but it can’t fix how people are treated every day. Under negative leadership, more than half of workers say they would quit or consider quitting, and almost half stop pursuing promotions.

SHARE THIS: Know a boss you’d take a pay cut to work for? Send this to them and tell them why. And if you’re building that kind of team, share it with your managers so they know what your people value most.

Subscribe to the Raise the Bar newsletter!

About Betsy: Betsy Allen-Manning is the wake-up call you didn’t know you needed. She’s a high-energy leadership keynote speaker and creator of the Bar Raisers™ Movement: a proprietary system redefining how organizations are approaching performance, leadership, and culture. Featured on FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC, and TEDx, Betsy works with organizations across corporate, franchise, association, nonprofit, and government sectors. She’s the lead researcher behind the National Workplace Trends Study, and delivers programs around her Bar Raisers™ and Leadership Mastery frameworks. She is the founder of Destination Workplace®, an award-winning leadership development firm in Dallas, Texas.