Difference in Salary amongst colleagues.

luckbox

This is common in my industry. Usually employees that have been around for years and came through the ranks are out payed by newer starters. Easiest thing to do is move jobs to get a 15k bump. Staying in the same place is not usually the best move financially

robatwork

Nothing unusual here - you're prepared to do a job for £x and your colleagues are prepared to do a job for £y.

You need to ask yourself if you raise this subject and get rejected, are you prepared to leave?  

If so then have the conversation and say that you feel you are being unfairly treated because of the disparity. In most cases you will get 10 reasons why the company would "love to reward you more, but.....". At that point you will need to move elsewhere as that is sometimes the only way to increase salary.

breaking_free

I agree with everything said above. An acquaintance of mine recently handed in notice and set up his own business. He knew he was being taken advantage of as he was the "go to" person for every query and had to train all the newbies at his small company, but got no recognition or commensurate salary increases despite working there for some 15 years.

Get this: his employer immediately offered him a big salary bump PLUS 25% of the business. The boss knew damn well that he'd been taking the mick re: wages and that his business is very likely to go under without his number one employee. My acquaintance stuck to his guns and is already doing very well for himself. 

Go in armed with facts and state that you're looking to move on as you know you will get better pay elsewhere. Don't ask, don't get. Good luck.

[Deleted User]

Unfortunately the best thing to do is look for a better job. You could push to get the same as them but it's unlikely to work out well for you in the end.

AskAsk

[Deleted User] said:

Unfortunately the best thing to do is look for a better job. You could push to get the same as them but it's unlikely to work out well for you in the end.

i found that asking for a pay increase doesn't really work as they will have to put you through the 'justify' why they should pay you more so the best way to get a pay increase is to move and find a better paid job.

you need to be prepared to move around and this is not for everyone of course as starting a new job and taking on new roles is not always easy and can be stressful.

funnyvideo

I once did a job that I proved to be very good at from day one. I was doing things that had never been done before and getting praised left right and centre for the work I was doing. At the same time I was still junior and getting a junior salary.

One day I was down the pub with a colleague I'd become friends with complaining about not being given the financial recognition for the work I'd done. In my mind I was at that level because of my lack of experience and now I had more experience and had proved myself I should be getting paid accordingly.

He agreed, but said that from the companies point of view if I was to leave they could just get another junior in to do the same as I did. It worked when they took me on so there's no reason it couldn't work again by taking someone else on. It's not something I wanted to hear but he's right. 

At the end of the day as employees we want to do the least work for the most money and the employers want to pay the least money for the most work. A salary is a compromise between the two.

Sandtree

funnyvideo said:

At the end of the day as employees we want to do the least work for the most money and the employers want to pay the least money for the most work. A salary is a compromise between the two.

There is a notable cost involved in losing staff, the CPO of a former employer once estimated it cost between 125% and 175% of the employees fully loaded salary when you factor in hiring costs (direct and indirect), getting new person up to speed, overtime or lost productivity whilst filling the vacancy and getting the person up to speed etc. I'd personally caveat it to saying loosing an established employee but who am I to challenge his white paper.

Employers will always have to have an eye on the bottom line and so most wont pay well over market rate (though there was this The CEO who gave his employees a minimum wage of $ 70,000 says his company's revenue tripled (entrepreneur.com) story to show there is always an exception) but that doesnt mean they will nickle and dime everyone. If I am hiring someone for a job that the market rate is £60,000 and I find someone with the perfect skills mix but they've been out of work for 9 months then I am likely to offer them over market rate as these people are hard to find rather than offering below market rate because after so long out of work they'll probably accept it... I dont want to think just of tomorrow but keeping the person for a couple of years at least.

funnyvideo

I agree about the cost in losing staff. Unfortunately many employers don't view it that way. My former employer I speak of had such a high turnover of staff and I get the impression that's the way they liked it. Even the CEO changed during my time there. 

TBagpuss

funnyvideo said:

I once did a job that I proved to be very good at from day one. I was doing things that had never been done before and getting praised left right and centre for the work I was doing. At the same time I was still junior and getting a junior salary.

One day I was down the pub with a colleague I'd become friends with complaining about not being given the financial recognition for the work I'd done. In my mind I was at that level because of my lack of experience and now I had more experience and had proved myself I should be getting paid accordingly.

He agreed, but said that from the companies point of view if I was to leave they could just get another junior in to do the same as I did. It worked when they took me on so there's no reason it couldn't work again by taking someone else on. It's not something I wanted to hear but he's right. 

At the end of the day as employees we want to do the least work for the most money and the employers want to pay the least money for the most work. A salary is a compromise between the two.

I don't think that's always the case. A lot of employers are very aware of the costs of high turnover, and of course raking on a new employee is always a risk, you don't know whether they will live up to the promise shown in their interview etc. - an existing employee is a known quantity.


It's always worth having the conversation. Of course ideally employers should actively review salaries and performance and make sure that people are getting paid appropriately for what they do, but, especially in smaller organisations where there may be fewer  procedures in place for regular reviews, and/or where the people making those decisions are also doing a range of other things, it doesn't always happen, or doesn't happen as regularly.

Example: Where I work, we have recently taken on a new employee. We have just paid £14,000 to a recruitment agency, realistically, for the first three months, if they bring in enough to cover their own salary, we'll be doing pretty well. 
In out case this particular hire isn't to replace someone leaving, it's because we are expanding the relevant part of our business, but it's an example of some of the more obvious costs involved in replacing someone (admittedly, this is someone on a fairly high salary, but recruitment agencies typically charge 15-25% of annual salary so it's a substantial cost regardless of what the salry is. (Also why if there's a choice, applying for a job directly rather than through an agency can be a good idea - if they are saving 15-20 % of your salary by hiring you directly, that's more money available for salary!) 

Marcon

SpsLV said:

 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 

It sounds as if that's exactly what your employer has done - but if you enjoy your job and were happy with your salary until you found out what others were being paid, beware the (wholly understandable) knee jerk reaction of upping sticks as soon as you can find another job. Given the mood you are likely to be in (i.e. 'exit as soon as I can'), you could shoot yourself in the foot.

Time for a straight talking conversation with your employer, but garner the facts about your own performance and worth, rather than trying to talk about others. Your employer will, entirely correctly, decline to discuss the salaries of other employees.