My boss has told me time and time again, if I want a raise, come to him with a competing job offer. How bad could it go if I actually did it?

First, a little backstory. I’ve been with this company for 20 years. I started in the most entry level of IT positions but I’ve climbed the corporate ladder through hard work, dedication, and a bit of ass kissing. I make a decent salary but I know I’m underpaid compared to others that share my job title. One guy with the same title makes double what I make and I work 10x harder than he does (he’s friends with the big boss so he gets away with it). He even gets company stock as part of his total compensation in addition to his 200k+ salary.

The past few years, my salary hasn’t grown but instead my bonus potential has. And each year there’s some new bullshit reason why I can’t get my full bonus and it gets capped at 1-2% despite exceeding every bonus goal. I’ve gone to my boss about this and he’s told me he can’t do anything for me unless I bring him a competing job offer. He gives me the whole “the company sucks” speech and tells me he’s on my side but until there’s a risk of losing me, the company is going to keep screwing me over. He’s even recommended I quit and come back as that’s how people double their salary since the company actually feels the pain of losing someone like me.

Over the past year, I’ve beefed up my education by earning multiple certificates and a college degree. I’m having my resume and LinkedIn professionally done but I’m not sure what to do next. I’m not ready to relocate and I know remote work is over saturated. I’m considering talking to a few local IT recruiters and seeing if there are any companies in the area hiring someone with my skills.

I want to call his bluff and bring him a competing job offer but I don’t see how that would go in my favor. I’m a very trusted member of the team and have a lot of inside information. If the people at the top thought I was actually going to leave, they’d likely install tracking software on my computer, monitor what I’m doing all day, and build a case to term me. They’re spiteful cunts. I’m not even kidding, one time someone anonymously sent an email from some external account criticizing how they screw us out of our bonuses, and they had us working around the clock trying to figure out who it was so they could fire him.

I’m not sure how else to pursue asking for a raise though as I’ve gone down this road several times. The only additional ammunition I have now is education which I was lacking before. I appreciate any advice you kind folks could offer but this message is likely going to self destruct in 24 hours. I really don’t need a coworker to stumble upon it and figure out it’s me. Then again, maybe there are a lot of fucked up companies like this out there.