Next Wednsday will be my first fortnightly pay of the new financial year, so I expect the annual salary letter was distributed at my workplace last week while I was on leave. So, tomorrow I should find out what sort of pay increase I've received. The recent national minimum wage case awarded a 1.7% rise and the average weekly wage was risen by around 3.5% in the past 12 months. Since I haven't had a change in job description in the past year I expect a rise of between 2.5% and 5%. Since even a 5% rise in salary would only have the same impact on my financial position as an extra 0.35% return on my investment portfolio, the impact of my wage rise will be more emotional than fiscal. If I get a minimal rise of 2.5% or less I'll probably feel a bit unappreciated, especially since I only got the standard across the board rise of around 3% last year. A larger rise would make me feel appreciated at work. That's one of the challenges faced by employers - any large wage rise has only a transient impact on employee morale and motivation, but has an ongoing impact on the cost of the payroll and the company's bottom line.

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