"The Game of Life" Pay Raise Rules

When needing a pay raise it's good to know the rules to get that raise. This holds true in reality or when playing Hasbro's "The Game of Life." In 2010, Hasbro celebrated the game's 50th Anniversary, although the game had been created by Milton Bradley and played since 1860. Game changes over the years have been designed to better reflect changing life situations. Just as in real life, individuals have opportunities to increase their personal income such as getting pay raises, so do the players in the game of life.

Career Choice

Every player on the first turn has a choice of going to college for opportunities of better career choices or immediately choosing a career. The type of career is not optional, the player pulls one random card from the Career Card deck. If the card notes "Degree Required" they continue until finding a non-degree job. They will next pull a random Salary Card. Though it's not a true pay raise, the player has the chance of being paid at one of the highest salary levels.

Job Search

Those willing to start the game $40,000 in debt with a bank loan to pay for college will soon land on the Job Search space. These players make career and salary selections the same as those who took the career path, only they have a few advantages. First, they get to choose from three Career Cards and three Salary Cards.

Beyond Payday

The big advantage of the college route is that when players perform their job search they can compare opportunities with Career Spaces on the board. Career Spaces have a symbol that corresponds with a symbol on the nine career cards. When landing on a career space, players pay the corresponding career card holder. The holder of the Doctor Career Card gets paid $5,000 when a player lands on the Ski Accident and other medical illness and accident spaces. The accountant gets paid for all "Taxes Due" spaces and the Police Officer has one $5,000 space for "speeding." However, the Police Officer can catch players "speeding" every time they spin a 10 on the wheel.

Night School

Landing on the Night School space provides players the option to create their own pay raise by changing careers and salaries. This opportunity first comes at a price of $20,000 for tuition. If accepting the opportunity, the player can either choose a new Career Card, or keep the one he has and take a new Salary Card. The amount of increase remains up to chance, as he can only pull two random cards from which to make a selection. If by chance, neither card pleases the player, he has the option of returning both cards to the respective decks.

Forced Career Change

"The Game of Life" has two spaces that force players to change careers, the Fired and Mid-life Crisis spaces. Players must exchange their current Career Card and Salary Card for one random card off of each deck. Players without a degree must return "degree required" cards until one one non-degree card turns up. This forced career change does not guarantee a pay raise for many players, especially those holding career space cards. The result could send them to the Poor Farm, or what is renamed in the current game version as Countryside Acres.