Pay dispute

Jerusalem_2

Hi guys,

I would like your advice on a pay issue that I am currently having. I am working for a company where there are a 3 other people doing the same job, with the same title as me, however I am paid at least £1200 a year less than them, and in the case of 1 colleague this gap is even larger. There is no difference in experience/qualifications between us, the only difference I can notice is that I am of different age to everyone else there.


I have informed my company that I am not totally happy with this and I was told this would be looked in to however this was nearly 8 months ago and I have not heard a thing from them yet. This has now been going on for over 2 years so I have now decided to take matters in to my own hands, I have looked at the links at the top of the page and I have a fair idea of who to contact however I am slightly embarrassed about doing this so I would like people’s opinions that this is a worthwhile exercise and that it would help get a positive outcome.

Thank you

sammyjammy

Does the company work on pay scales? I work for a gov dept and the salary for a certain grade may differ by more than £4k dependant on how long have you been in that grade, if thats the case in your work I don't think you have a hope of claiming age discrimination, what did they say they were going to do exactly?

prowla

I don't think that it is a requirement that everybody doing a given job has to be paid the same.
One choice you have is to leave and go elsewhere; that is how a lot of people achieve pay increments.

anniecave

so you say "There is no difference in experience/qualifications between us". Is that 100% the case?

Do you all have identical qualifications? Both in any area specific qualifcations and generally in terms of academic achievement?

Have you all been doing your current job exactly the same length of time? Have you all been doing other similar jobs previous to that for the exact same length of time and/or unrelated other jobs for the same period of time? Or did you all start straight out of school/college/university at exactly the same time?

If you can see any differences above, that could be partly it.

At our company there are 4 of us who do broadly similar jobs (we have the same job title) but exactly what we do differs a lot and I have no idea what my salary is in relation to the others. It is a condition of our employment that we don't discuss salaries with each other, as it's entirely dependant on what was offered/agreed at first commencement. I am certain we are not all on the same pay. We all have different amounts of experience (relevant and general) and we all have different academic backgrounds. It makes for a good team as we all have different strengths!

Sometimes it depends when you are taken on and job market conditions at that time and people only get inflation increases ongoing after this, if their jobs don't change.

Sometimes you are taken on and if you prove to be capable and working beyond the average or maybe if your job changes and you are worth more then you get a pay review and increase.

If you are just average (or below average) then you'll just get the same!

oh and sometimes being older is better (more experience etc) and sometimes younger is better (more adaptable to change, less previous experience that may be contrary...) - it all depends what your employer is looking for!

Oh and the job market isn't the best at the moment, and not planning to get better anytime in the short term, so don't do anything too hasty!

Caz3121

I work in an organisation where many people have Tupe'd in from other companies at their original salaries - I know of cases where there have been differences of over £20k of people doing the same job as they had come in from a high payer or low payer company. Difficult for the new employer to fix.

Jerusalem_2

Hi all, thanks for your replies. I will try and answer some points I have seen above.

We don't work on scales by the way. When I discussed this months ago I was just told "we will look in to this" and that I should hear something within 10 days, obviously it is well past that now

I can honestly say there is no difference in qualifactions or experience however I have found out now that my company are advertising for new staff (to do same job as me) and are offering at least £5000 more than what I am currently on. Also on checking my contract today, I noticed it staes that all employees undertaking the same role will be entitled to equal pay regardingless of race, age, disability...etc

However taking things in to consideration I have decided to contact my HR manager again and see what has happened since our meeting months ago before I decide what I do next

Again, thanks for your help