Pay Related to Age - Age Discrimination?

BillVTS

Good evening all, I wonder if anyone can shed any light on my situation and perhaps give me some advice as to how to move forward.

I work for a small company who provide IT solutions and support for SMB's, we have a total of seven employees, I am one of five engineers. It has recently been brought to my attention that I am paid considerably less than my fellow engineers.

I have now been working for this company for seven years, I am now 25, the other engineers are mid to late 30's. I have the same job description and support role and I am performing installations of new equipment to the same scale as the other engineers, with the exception that I am one of two engineers that are qualified in the installation and support of phone systems, I am slightly more qualified in phone systems than the other.

I happened to come across a pay slip of one of my fellow employees lying around in the office and this person is paid over £500 a month more than myself. Whilst I understand that people who have worked for the company for a longer duration may be on higher pay this particular employee started working for the company approximately three months after myself and considering we do exactly the same job and have a proven equality in skill, (though I am more qualified) the only reason I can think of for this difference is that this person is older than me.

Where do I stand legally on this issue? Has anyone ever been in a similar situation?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Regards
Lawrie

Hammyman

Good luck proving it. OTOH, I'd be watching your back if it came to light you'd been nosing at other peoples wage slips.

GavB79

That's a very big assumption based on very little information! First, establish the facts.

poppy_f1

maybe the other engineer managed to negotiate a better salary when starting

Annisele

Sometimes it's as simple as "Alex asked for a payrise so he got one. Bob didn't ask for a payrise so he didn't". It isn't always about discrimination!

Before you found out about your colleague's pay, did you think that your pay was fair? If not, come up with evidence (not including your colleague's pay) and ask for a review. If you did think it was fair before, then it's probably still fair now - and your likely remedy is probably to move to another firm and negotiate with them.

BillVTS

Hammyman wrote: »

Good luck proving it. OTOH, I'd be watching your back if it came to light you'd been nosing at other peoples wage slips.

I don't really think I'm in the wrong, the wage slip was left out on a desk, I didn't actually touch it, they can check for fingerprints

When discussing the possibility of fuel cards in a recent meeting, it was stated that we had to be careful due to approaching the higher tax band "well everyone but me", so it is common knowledge.

GavB79 wrote: »

That's a very big assumption based on very little information! First, establish the facts.

In what way do you mean Gav? What facts need to be established? We work very closely and all of our worked is logged into a system so we can all see what each other is upto and how we are performing.

Regards
Lawrie

BillVTS

poppy_f1 wrote: »

maybe the other engineer managed to negotiate a better salary when starting

I started as a trainee, but my point is, should two people who do exactly the same job have a difference in pay of £6000 pa?

Annisele wrote: »

Sometimes it's as simple as "Alex asked for a payrise so he got one. Bob didn't ask for a payrise so he didn't". It isn't always about discrimination!

Before you found out about your colleague's pay, did you think that your pay was fair? If not, come up with evidence (not including your colleague's pay) and ask for a review. If you did think it was fair before, then it's probably still fair now - and your likely remedy is probably to move to another firm and negotiate with them.

I've always felt underpaid for what I do and have had payrises but they never "cut the mustard" and I do expect to be on slightly less than the others due to their experience, but I feel that that is a huge difference considering we do the same job.

[Deleted User]

lawrie86 wrote: »

I have now been working for this company for seven years, I am now 25.

You'll find this is the problem. Typically, you get your best pay-rises by moving firms. Loyalty doesn't do much anymore. These guys in their 30s have moved around firms and came into your company from a higher initial salary. To hire them, your firm would have matched or increased their old salary

Don't get stuck on a career rut at 25. These guys have 10 years of experience on you.

poppy_f1

lawrie86 wrote: »

I started as a trainee, but my point is, should two people who do exactly the same job have a difference in pay of £6000 pa?



I've always felt underpaid for what I do and have had payrises but they never "cut the mustard" and I do expect to be on slightly less than the others due to their experience, but I feel that that is a huge difference considering we do the same job.

well if the other bloke has done a better deal in negotiating then why not

i do the exact same job as the person sitting next to me, but we are on different salarys but my work pay rises is performance related pay - nothing wrong with that and also while length of service isnt taken into account my work has been open for nearly 9 years and i have been there for 7 but it stands to reason that someone who has been there longer will possibly be on more money as they had 2 more pay reviews than me

claire16c

ringo_24601 wrote: »

You'll find this is the problem. Typically, you get your best pay-rises by moving firms. Loyalty doesn't do much anymore. These guys in their 30s have moved around firms and came into your company from a higher initial salary. To hire them, your firm would have matched or increased their old salary

Don't get stuck on a career rut at 25. These guys have 10 years of experience on you.

This is definitely true. Moving around can get you thousands in extra pay. Lots of people at my old work, worked there for a few years, then moved somewhere else, sometimes as little as for 1 or 2 years, and then came back on much higher salaries than they would have been on if they had stayed there.

And sometimes they didnt even have to move, they just needed to get a job offer from somewhere else so they could negotiate with it.

[Deleted User]

claire16c wrote: »

This is definitely true. Moving around can get you thousands in extra pay. Lots of people at my old work, worked there for a few years, then moved somewhere else, sometimes as little as for 1 or 2 years, and then came back on much higher salaries than they would have been on if they had stayed there.

And sometimes they didnt even have to move, they just needed to get a job offer from somewhere else so they could negotiate with it.

I've been working for about 7 years now. I've worked out that i'm earning 21k more because i've moved around jobs (thats based on my pay if i'd stayed there 7 years, vs current salary). I also work in IT. I've found you tend to get a 20-30% payrise by moving jobs.