At what point does that stop panning out, though? My pay is somewhat above average and management is unlikely to give me a big raise going forward without a promotion. (And at my work the next promotion would be a sort of 'team lead' position, which I'm uninterested in.)

I guess that was just a long winded way of saying: I understand where this is coming from, but in some situations the logical next step may actually be a side gig :-).

It's often the case that one needs to leave and get a job at a different organization to get a non-trivial increase in salary.

I'm in a similar spot (earning the high end for my title; promotion is feasible, but some politics at play within the org, so I'm gonna end up putting some time in at my current level). I have free time and enjoy writing code, so I pick up little consulting gigs here and there for play money (I'm an avid homebrewer, so money is always well spent)

Absolutely true. You can learn a lot from contracting / consulting. Advancing one's career definitely doesn't mean working harder at one's current job or trying to get promoted.

I'd recommend you try side gigs. Pick the one that offers you the best learning experience. Then consider trying consulting full time. If you want to break the wage ceiling, consulting is a great low-risk business.

If a raise is truly unfeasible, it's time to look for another job.

I assume that effort is already there and the OP is trying to generate additional revenues beyond his or her primary income.

On the other hand $100/wk now + interest is worth more than a $5k bump some months from now distributed over the following 12 months.

Especially with the amazing interest rates these days...

At some point though, isn't better to get paid more per hour than working more hours? The average senior developer in the area I live - a major metropolitan city on the east coast that isn't NYC - can easily charge $60-$75 hour as a W2 contractor, probably 30% more as a corp-to-corp contractor. It would be a better long term investment to keep learning and gaining skills that make your hourly rate of your salary higher. You can only work so many hours a day.

A side benefit is that the more marketable skills you have, the easier/faster it is to get another job if you get laid off. My quickest time between looking for a job and getting an offer has been 4 days.

What interest are you referring to? Honestly we haven't had interest rates worth considering for years (at least 8 years since a savings rate above 1%). Now you get a rounding error level of interest on savings such that finding coins on the street probably doubles your effective interest rate on savings.

This isn't true on the span of a single year due to market volatility.

I think sidlls is really pointing out the present/future value of money calcations. It's 100% accurate if you invested in a flat rate, guaranteed interest, investment.

The $5k bump has to be figured over more than one year, unless of course it's an instant raise.

Why is it so low? I think I read it happened after the 2008 recession, but why so low, and still? seems extra unusual.

Quantitative Easing and the US Fiscal policy. Look it up.

Thanks.