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I received a double promotion last year & received a pay raise, let's say for arguments sake I now earn $70,000.00 after this. My grade is now grade G, it was E. I had no opportunity to discuss my requirements.

My colleague just applied for a new role which is a grade F, he managed to get $80,000.00 because he was able to discuss terms.

How I know is not the problem, my colleague is working a job with less responsibilities, he escalates his programming issues to me and I work with the customer to resolve them - he does the same but is not quite as technical - I am dealing with things he can't for him. We've both been at the company the same time.

How do I approach this at pay review? I feel pretty hard done by, I had the opportunity to apply for this new role but didn't because it was a grade below, I feel like I am getting a raw deal!

Is this normal and how should I approach it?

Anonymouse
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4 Answers4

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This is completely normal, but not well known because of the taboo surrounding salary discussions, at least in the US. You always have an opportunity to discuss requirements, but it comes at the price of perhaps having to leave if your requirements are not met.

Truth is there's no inherent fairness in how pay is distributed -- it's a combination of how well you sell yourself, how skilled of a negotiator you are, and how valuable your given skills are to your employer at the time you are hired.

You can certainly ask for a salary review and increase, but you have less leverage as a current employee versus a new hire. At the same time, you'll need to have reasons why you are worth being paid more -- simply comparing yourself to another employee will not convince your employer.

You can certainly call attention to the things you do better than your co-worker, but you'll have to do that without making a direct reference to another person's abilities.

mcknz
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  • Hello - great reply. With the new hire vs current hire, I am "up the chain" in terms of experience and capability, my skills are well known and I have been rewarded with 'awards' which are essentially pats on the back by VP level. I don't really want to give an ultimatum though, I do like it here, equally I should be paid for the work I am doing and it should be fair... but I get not everyone knows what goes on behind the scenes and they may not know what I know, I will approach delicately. – Anonymouse Apr 07 '16 at 20:48
  • @Anonymouse glad you found it helpful. You may want to hold off on accepting an answer for a couple of days, however -- this gives other people a chance to weigh in, and you may get more and better answers. – mcknz Apr 07 '16 at 20:52
  • This gives me a plan/strategy - thank you, it's the answer for me. – Anonymouse Apr 07 '16 at 20:54
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    @Anonymouse rarely does a pay increase request need to be couched as an ultimatum -- the fact that you are asking at all signals to your employer that you are in some way not satisfied with your current situation (however small). The employer then knows there's a risk if your request is denied -- you might end up leaving. – mcknz Apr 07 '16 at 21:11
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Grades often have a salary range. If you jump a grade you would typically come in at the bottom of the range. The good new is there is room to give you a raise in the grade. Grade pay will overlap but a $10,000 overlap between F and G seems high. Yes they are most likely taking advantage of you. Go in with an objective argument of why you think you deserve more.

They may have a max raise - so if you were at $63K the max raise may have been 10% but you would get the max raise until you got in the grade range. But more likely they are just taking advantage of you.

paparazzo
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  • +1 for pointing out that the company may be wrong here, if they have grades they have to use them correctly, (almost) no one wants to be the "Super mega cool mighty boss" and earn less than the guy who changes broken bulbs – Felipe Pereira Apr 08 '16 at 01:06
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You had your opportunity when you given the raise and promotion. When presented with the promotion you were probably happy with it I assume given you didn't indicate you had issue with it then.

Now you find out that someone with less responsibility is making more. You have several options.

  1. Try and renegotiate now, given the information you have.
  2. Wait until your next normal review to 'request' the higher amount.
  3. Find a new job that pays what you want.

You are in a tough spot having found out what your colleague is making. It is highly possibly that he had some leverage of some sort (maybe the lower position is hard to fill etc.). Also going back to the well so soon after the promotion could cause problems. Revealing you know the salary could also be problematic.

Bill Leeper
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  • It is pay review now, my role is pretty important right now - my role created the need for his, as big headed as it sounds (I am an escalations engineer, I fix what he can't or when they get mad). At the original pay review I did not have the opportunity to barter, as it's a large company they sort of slam the door shut on you - I am trying to prepare my manager early with what I want. – Anonymouse Apr 07 '16 at 20:10
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    Revealing that you know the other guy's salary would only be problematic if it wasn't him who told you. (Assuming you're in the USA) Despite whatever the company handbook may say on the matter, they can't prevent employees from sharing salary info with each other (except in a few limited circumstances). – brhans Apr 07 '16 at 20:15
  • I am actually based in EMEA. He did tell me, he told me what he was stating he wanted before he took the role or he wouldn't take it, as it wasn't a promotion he had the opportunity to state his terms, on the promotions at this big company... it's already decided when you get into the meeting. – Anonymouse Apr 07 '16 at 20:16
  • @Anonymouse Hmm. He may have taken less anyway, once he was given a "take it or leave it" figure that was lower than what he asked for. – BobRodes Apr 08 '16 at 02:57
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Ok it sounds like someone from outside came into the role. Typically they have more of an opportunity to negotiate than people do with internal promotions.

Get the idea that pay is fair out of your head. Pay is never fair and never will be. People coming in from the outside are subject to different market conditions than people already employed by the company. People may have what you view as a less important or less technical role but how HR sees it may be entirely different. His experience might look better on paper than yours. After all they can;t know his performance until after he accepts the salary can they? Someone coming at the highest level of his pay grade may not get a pay raise at all for several years. Employees who have been there for 5 or more years are likely many thousands below the pay scale of a new employee because they can't get new employees to accept that level.

In any organization you can find many people who receive salaries you will not consider fair. The problem is that your list would be different than mine and would be different than any other ten people you asked. Fair is perception. I would imagine there are people in your organization who think you are overpaid. It is literally impossible for HR to set salaries for every person in the organization that every other person would think were fair.

You can ask for a pay raise if you want but having gotten a double grade promotion this year, it is highly unlikely they will give you a review. What ever you do, do not base your request on what someone else makes. That is almost a guarantee that you will not get a raise.

HLGEM
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