Help needed - Pay Increase

ScottPilgrim

Hi this is a question to anyone with knowledge of employment law.

I was taken on by my employer in January last year, at the time of interview the job was advertised as an “Officer” role, however following interview I was approached to say that no one interviewed met “Officer” standards however I showed good potential and they wanted to offer me the same job but as a “Trainee” at one point lower on the pay scale. I was happy with this as it was a really great opportunity and a step up from my previous job – I was told that once I started working as an “Officer” they’d adjust my pay accordingly, at the time of starting the head of the company told me that he expected this to be after around 6 months. After 8 months I questioned whether I would be getting this rise and was told I would as soon as I had my appraisal, which was supposed to be after 6 months anyway but they were in the process of making changes to the appraisal procedure so it was delayed. My appraisal was delayed a number of times until it was finally fixed for January this year, 12 months after I began my employment (6 months late). Before my appraisal I had to rate my own performance against my job description, after talking to HR I found that no new job description had been drawn up to represent me being a “Trainee”, in fact I was down as an “Officer” on my contract only on a lower pay scale than all the other “Officers” – so I had to assess myself against the “Officer” job description. At appraisal I was rated mostly 2’s with some 1’s on a scale of 1-4 (1 being very good, 2 being good, 3 being satisfactory and 4 being poor). 2 months on and no more has been done despite my asking a number of times.

Now I don’t want to cause an issue at my company because as I said I really enjoy my work and the employer has been fantastic with me for the most part but I am starting to feel taken advantage of. My question is what should I do and how should I approach it so I don't burn any bridges? Also, is my employer actually breaking the law by employing me on the same job title, job description and me doing all the same work as other employees but paying me less? What are my rights in this instance, for example, would I be entitled to having my pay rise backdated etc?

LadyMissA

No they are not breaking the law paying different salaries. You can even do the same kind of job with more work and more responsibilites and they can still pay you less.

InsideInsurance

The last time I was an employee my job title was "project manager". I had the same job description as every "project manager" in the company. The lowest paid person I knew with that job title earned £35,000. The highest paid person with that job title earned £82,000. There were "junior project managers" earning more than £35k and there were "senior project managers" earning less than £82k.

Salaries are individually negotiated and there is no requirement for them to be equal. The only argument ever can be if you can prove an outlawed "ism" is the reason for the pay difference.

The reality is generally you will get the fasted promotions by staying within a company, you will get the fastest payrise by moving outside the company. I managed to get to Senior PM in the above company but the majority of PMs were higher paid than me and that included the fact that as a higher grade I got cash benefits in lieu of a company car etc.

Its ultimately up to you if you think you are paid adequately and you are happy/ secure enough. I knew i was under paid but got amazing experience that allowed me to massively increase money when leaving.