You’ve been in your job for a few years now, and your salary hasn’t budged. Your thoughts turn to the want ads.
Changing jobs for a higher income is a time-honored tradition. Switch jobs too many times, however, and you risk being labeled a job-hopper.
With that red flag in mind, we posed a question to several career experts: How often can you safely change employers, if your goal is to earn more money?
American workers seem less loyal to their companies today than in the recent past. The median worker had a job tenure of 3.9 years in 2024, according to federal data, the lowest figure for employee tenure since 2002.
The typical active jobseeker has been in their current job for roughly two years and three months, according to Indeed, the employment website.
“The job market right now is a lot more fluid,” said Priya Rathod, workplace trends editor at Indeed.
Salaries are rising for many workers who remain in their jobs, but perhaps not as swiftly as they would like.
The average employer planned to award pay increases totaling 3.5% in 2026, according to an October survey of 1,000 organizations by Mercer, a human resources consultant.
With inflation hovering at an annual rate between 2% and 3%, a 3.5% pay raise is essentially flat.
One way to raise your pay, of course, is to land a higher-paying job.
Corporate recruiters are deluged with job letters. The number of applications filed on LinkedIn rose 45% between 2024 and 2025, The New York Times reports. AI has made it easier to apply.
When does job-hunting become job-hopping?
But when does job-hunting become job-hopping?
The term is “often defined as staying in roles for a little less than two years,” Rathod said.
Matthew Bidwell, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, agrees: “If you’re systematically in jobs less than two to three years, they start to get nervous.”
For potential employers, job-hopping can be a red flag. It suggests one of two things, Bidwell said: “Either it’s because you’re incompetent, and you keep getting edged out, or you have very itchy feet.”
Employers don’t like turnover. It takes time and money to train a replacement: the equivalent of one or two years’ salary, Bidwell said.
“That means I don’t want to hire you if you leave after one or two years,” he added.
Yet, the stigma associated with job-hopping may be fading.
Is workplace loyalty a thing of the past?
American workplace culture used to value loyalty, a theme embodied in the pension, a retirement savings vehicle that rewarded workers for long tenure. But those sensibilities have changed.
“Attitudes have shifted drastically in the last 20 years,” said Christine Sundry, associate director of the career center at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College. “Career paths today aren’t necessarily linear.”
Young adults emerge from college today with more debt, Sundry said, and under immediate pressure to land a high salary.
The remote work revolution of the COVID-19 era simplified the logistics of changing jobs.
“Job-hopping became something very serious a few years ago,” said Jasmine Escalera, a career expert at the networking site Bold.
Recent corporate layoffs may embolden workers to circulate their resumes.
“The job seeker doesn’t feel that they have to be loyal, because the company isn’t being loyal,” Sundry said.
Changing jobs every year or two doesn’t necessarily equate to job-hopping, experts say.
Among twenty-somethings, some job-hopping is expected. Older workers might be expected to stay put longer.
“I think a lot depends on your job, and on your age,” Bidwell said. “Changing jobs every year in your early- to mid-20s isn’t likely to be a problem. Over the years, if you keep doing it, it does start to raise eyebrows.”
If you do job-hop, career experts say, be ready to explain your decision in future job interviews.
“What matters more than how often you switch jobs is whether each move makes sense and, more importantly, whether it can be explained to a potential employer,” Rathod said.
Here are some alternatives to job-hopping
If you don’t want to explain your job-hopping to future employers, then consider alternatives. Here are a few:
Negotiate higher pay
Most American workers report that they didn’t ask for a higher salary than they were offered when they took their current job, Pew Research reports. A higher salary becomes important, job experts say, if you don’t get meaningful raises in the years to come.
Ask for a raise
Most American workers feel they’re entitled to a pay raise, but many balk at asking for one, according to a 2023 survey from the site B2B Reviews. Employees say they’re not sure how to ask, fear rejection or worry about job security.
Clearly, a worker who doesn’t ask for a raise is less likely to get one.
Ask for a promotion
Better still, career experts say, ask for a promotion.
“The other way people raise their wages is changing jobs inside companies,” Bidwell said. “The nice thing about getting promoted is, you get a pay raise, and you also get bumped into a higher pay band.”
With a promotion, you become eligible for higher-paying jobs at other companies, as well.
Leverage a job offer for a raise
One way to persuade an employer to offer a raise or promotion, career experts say, is to say you’ve been offered another job. But the strategy is risky, and it can backfire.
If your company rewards you with higher pay for rejecting another offer, your colleagues may “look at you as a little bit disloyal,” Bidwell said. “And if I think you’re halfway out the door, how much am I going to invest in you?”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How often can you change jobs for more money? The rules of ‘job-hopping.’
Reporting by Daniel de Visé, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
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