Difference in Salary amongst colleagues.

SpsLV

I have recently discovered my coworkers are paid a lot more than myself and I would like to know if there is anything I could do about this. Is it legal? I have been with the company for 6 years and until 2018 was the only member of the team other than my manager. We are now a team of 6 excluding myself. I have personally trained every individual due to my experience. Recently one of my colleagues was having a rant and let slip her salary which is almost £15k more than me. I was livid and couldn’t let it go so went on a mission to discover the rest of the team’s salaries. After a few cleverly worded conversations I know now 5 of 6 team members salaries and all are paid between £13k- 15k more than me. I have a great record with my employer and before this thought I wasNvery well respected by my management. Always go the extra mile and do the extra hours but I feel really upset over this and can’t shake off how unfair this is. I want to approach my manager and HR but just don’t know how to do this. I am the lowest paid in the team and yet I have trained every person in the team? I am the first person any of them go to for help… I feel my employer has taken advantage tbh considering 2 team members advised they started on £45K in late 2019, at that time I would have been on £30K. I am livid and actually looking for another job because of this now but before I take that step I thought I’d ask for some advice on how to handle this. Thanks 

biscan25

This happens much more often than you think, particularly at smaller companies without rigid pay grades.
Typically those on a higher salary than others:
1.Joined later and negiotiated a bump when they joined, or they would not accept the offer.
2. Query their salary at every pay review, and get given a higher salary accordingly.
3. Have threatened to leave, and have been given a payrise to stay.

Really, no offense has been committed unless the company is disciminating against a protected characteristic, i.e. you are female and your higher paid coworkers are mal, or vice versa.

Your only option is to ask for a payrise, and/or go down option 3 and perhaps leave for somewhere that values you more.

Brie

This is often the case and I've been in the same situation myself training newbies hired at more than I earned and even training people who were on a higher grade than me.  

Perfectly legal but obviously something that you should discuss with your manager.  I would suggest you don't say something like "I know that Jill makes £15k more than me" but rather "I've been told that you are currently hiring for this role at a rate much higher than I'm on".  Ask them to match you to the new salary to put you on par with your colleagues.  

But you might need to be prepared to walk.  Resigning may be the only way they will take you seriously.  

biscan25

I'd add that at points in my 10 year career I have used strategy 1,2, and 3, and been hurt when less qualified people were paid more than me.
It definitely pays to talk about salary with coworkers. Lots of employers get away with underpaying due to the stigma about talking about pay.

Undervalued

biscan25 said:

This happens much more often than you think, particularly at smaller companies without rigid pay grades.
Typically those on a higher salary than others:
1.Joined later and negiotiated a bump when they joined, or they would not accept the offer.
2. Query their salary at every pay review, and get given a higher salary accordingly.
3. Have threatened to leave, and have been given a payrise to stay.

Really, no offense has been committed unless the company is disciminating against a protected characteristic, i.e. you are female and your higher paid coworkers are mal, or vice versa.

Your only option is to ask for a payrise, and/or go down option 3 and perhaps leave for somewhere that values you more.

Indeed.

Even then you would have to show that was actually the reason for the difference. If they could show that the reason was, for example, because the employee of the other gender was more experienced or better qualified that would be perfectly lawful.

pjcox2005

There is the point you can get annoyed at the management or company, but you also want to look at your own behaviours. Have you pushed management at pay reviews, achieved promotions, considered looking elsewhere or at least kept track of market prices so that you know what is a good wage? You can't always expect others to just come to you.

Sandtree

biscan25 said:

This happens much more often than you think, particularly at smaller companies without rigid pay grades.

It can also happen a lot in big companies that have fairly broad pay categories.

Working for the insurance division of a multinational bank you had "Manager 1" grade which was circa £35,000-£70,000 and "Manager 2" grade which was circa £50,000 - £100,000 then "Senior Manager 1" grade of £70,000-£120,000

So not only were the banks wide but there was significant overlap and so not only could your colleagues of the same grade potentially be on £30k more than you, your employees potentially could be as well.


The general rule of thumb is you stay with a company for promotions/training etc and you switch companies for salary. I spent the first years of my career with the above company and went from trainee to Manager 1 (there were a couple  "Professional" grades below Manager) but had direct reports complaining about their salary to me despite them earning more than me (obv they didnt know). Anyway, after getting a strong CV and the requisite years of experience I left the company and increased my salary 66% over night. 

74jax

Have you asked for a pay review? You say you went above and beyond, did you tell them this and ask to be compensated? You trained the new starters, did you ask for more money? 
If not, then to be honest, they have left you on the salary you are on because they can. Harsh but true. 
If you have asked and they said no, then I 100% get the kick in the teeth. 

If you do look elsewhere, make sure they won't pay you more first (if you would stay that is) Then when you hand your notice in, if they counter (but didn't when you asked), you can tell them where to go. Hold your head high, and skip outta that place. 

TBagpuss

As others have said, it is absolutely legal unless the reason for the discrepancy is a protected characteristic .

It sounds as though what has happened here is that your wages have stagnated so you've been overtaken by people who joined later, perhaps a a time when market rates were higher or  qualified people more scare, and/or that others negotiated harder than you did.

It's reasonable to bring it up, ideally at a regular appraisal or whenever your employer does their normal salary reviewed. 

Don't be angry or accuse them of anything, just lay out the facts, that you have been doing some research and have found that you are significantly underpaid for your role, so are asking for a raise to bring you up to the market rate of £xx.

Obviously you need to think about what you will do if they say no - it may mean you need to move so be prepared for that, and don't hand in your notice until you have a new job, if that it what it comes to.

Another thing to be aware  of - do you know the other terms of your coworkers contracts? If they are earning 50% more than you then it's unlikely that you have other benefits that outweigh that, but you may have better contract terms (e.g. different / more generous holiday or sick leave) than later hires 

AskAsk

it happens quite often.  internal salary increases do not always keep pace with market rates so i find those who stay with the same employer for a long time may become senior but their salary does not keep in line with their seniority.  i move around quite a bit so i negotiate a good salary and i find that i earn more than my colleagues who have been with the company for many years and who are either at the similar level to me or higher.

i told my line manager once when i had a pay review how much my salary was, as i thought he knew but he looked pretty shocked when i told him which made me realise that he didn't know and that he was probably shocked because i was earning a lot more than him!

my colleagues are aware that i earn more than them but they accept this as they know people who are newly recruited tend to earn more than people who are long term employees.

Thrugelmir

SpsLV said:

After a few cleverly worded conversations I know now 5 of 6 team members salaries and all are paid between £13k- 15k more than me.

That's a significant difference for doing the same job. Perhaps your cleverly worded conservations weren't as clever as you thought.