[Closed] Getting paid less than collegues who do the same job (and are less qualified)

Apply for their job?

What PP said.

Unless it's advertised as "£x to £y", in which case that's standard recruiter speak for £x with the potential to reach £y after a decade of below inflationary pay rises..

Quit, then apply for the advertised job.

Companies hate giving more than inflation pay rises, but new hires will always be on market rate. If inflation is < market rate increase you'll always lag behind.

Company I work for will give merit increases, but hate ever giving more than 5%.

If you want a big rise, get a job at a competitor.

Unless your place has strict payscales for roles, then it's probably down to what you asked for (and what they thought you were worth) when you joined. Also, in my experience, internal promotions tend to have a lower pay rise than if someone external joined to do the same role.

Try not to focus on what other people are earning, but what you can do to increase your value and then ask for a pay rise (or look elsewhere - to get a "proper" pay rise you often need to change employer).

Are you a perm or contractor? Either way you need to get your manager in a room and make them squirm as much as you think you need to. if it's a high demand skill then be ballsy otherwise be firm but nice about it if you can't afford to lose the job.

No need to be a nasty about it.
Grab HR/your manager and ask why your colleagues and potential new hires are being paid more than you.
Any answer that isn’t “our bad, we’ll increase yours too” can be met with a follow-up question if “what would you do in my position then Mrs Manager?”.
If they don’t put you on the same money then you have a decision, put up with it or get out.

Had something like this at my last place. Chap in our West Coast US was a recent graduate, but was same grade and salary scale as me despite almost zero experience (compared to my 8 years). I queried this with my manager and was told that this needed to happen in California to attract the talent instead of losing them to other companies.

It was, as far as I could tell, because our HR department had no concept of weighting salaries and because our company could not compete with others in the area in anything other than money.

Made me feel rubbish though, really poorly valued.

Pay us largely how good you are at negotiations (within reasonable bounds for the job). New people always tend to come in on more money, that's why moving job is usually the most reliable way of getting more money.

Had something like this at my last place. Chap in our West Coast US was a recent graduate, but was same grade and salary scale as me despite almost zero experience (compared to my 8 years). I queried this with my manager and was told that this needed to happen in California to attract the talent instead of losing them to other companies.

Sounds reasonable-ish though, salaries in the USA generally seems to be significantly higher than UK, so if the company needs offices in both locations they're going to have to have a disparity in pay.

I know ex colleagues on 6 figure (dollar) salaries in the SF bay area which it particularity galling on a wet March morning without a pay rise for 6 years!

I know ex colleagues on 6 figure (dollar) salaries in the SF bay area

I had similar when working on a project in Malibu comparing salaries with US colleagues, until you add into the picture healthcare insurance (that will likely have a cap on claim amount per year), 10 days holiday and cost of rent/property. Though it was tempting when I could spend lunchtime watching dolphins in the Pacific as opposed to working in the shadow of the QE2 bridge back home.

Unless you are on fixed salary bands for grade (i.e. NHS) then salary for same job can be completely different based on length of service, ability and for external applicants market rate.

For the grade and type of work I do in the company I am at the salary could be around £30k different from one person to next based on those factors.

I know ex colleagues on 6 figure (dollar) salaries in the SF bay area which it particularity galling on a wet March morning without a pay rise for 6 years!

If it makes you feel any better despite being in California San Francisco is pretty cold year-around, although typically drier. It's also terrifyingly expensive to live. more so than London. MY SIL is a $100k a year Kids Gym instructor in NYC, she's not wealthy in the slightest.

One of the guys we buy things from works from home in an 'Condo' right on the beach in Miami. Sounds lovely, well apart from the storms and the rampant violent crime. Also the 'Florida Man' thing is very real, we might think of Florida as theme parks and Miami Vice, but it's proper dodgy.

Now I find out my collegues are on more than I am despite having similar experience but less qualifications.

There is another thought, and I don’t want to sound nasty here, but are those colleagues better at their job than you? Experience and quals don’t mean you’re good at your job, it means you’ve done it a while and have a certification.
If others are better at it, or the intend to hire people who are better at it then paying them more is not unreasonable.

No, half of them don't give a **** and apparently complain a lot and cause management issues (i.e. the one who just walked out without working his notice).

Experience.....it means you’ve done it a while

One place I worked at stopped annual increments and brought in banding after a change of ownership. People who'd been at the company for years and got x% rise every year suddenly found they were benchmarked for their job and if it was higher than the local rate then no payrise until the banding moved.

Most of the people affected were complaining that "they've got xxyears of experience". The ever so friendly HR drone bluntly replied "is it XX years of varied experience or XX years of doing the same thing over and over?"

Ask for the rise. If refused, prepare to leave.

Personally, I'd get looking and have something lined up.

I did bluff a 38% rate rise once though. 🙂

I was in the same situation recently.
The new starters were on £4k more a year with no experience, it takes over a year to be trained and a useful member of the team and to be signed off and allowed to work on your own. The fact that I could work on all instruments and over 100% utilised when I should have been 80% was lost on them.
I looked for other work and found one within 2 weeks.
I’m much happier now.

It's bollox but what others have said is true... best way to get a pay rise for free is work somewhere else. Mostly within the same organisation an internal pay rise comes with more expectation, especially if you're already doing a good job.
It's like insurance or energy provider, loyalty is heavily penalised, if you don't change its a signal you want to pay more...if you don't leave a job it's a signal you are happy with the salary (even when you say you aren't most of the time).

It happens, and the only real option is to bounce around jobs picking up a little uplift everytime.

You can ask HR/your manager but don't expect anything. You might possibly need some paperwork/evidence of what you do rather than just 'Fred earns more than me'.

I don't know why anyone on the planet would ask HR anything.

Ask yourself: Who does HR work for?

Get something else lined up. Tell your boss you want a rise as you're underpaid. If they don't give it - leave.

The best way to find out your market value is to get another job. You can then decide if you want to entertain a counteroffer from your current employer.

I can't believe no one has suggested doing 16% less work per hour.

I don’t know why anyone on the planet would ask HR anything.

Ask yourself: Who does HR work for?

Yep, HR exist for one reason - to protect the company

The company I work for grows a lot through acquisitions, as a result those of us that have been there the longest are often the lowest paid in our roles, I've even had people in my team in more junior roles (without niche specialist skills) paid more as they came from a company with above-average salaries and benefits.

It's a bit crap but by the same measure I don't expect my salary to be lowered if we acquire a company with people paid below average salaries and it won't be a competitive business if we keep raising salaries to the top of the market. And at the end of the day I can always leave and go elsewhere if I want to try and get to top market rate for my role.

That said in your position if the company is fairly static in terms of employee numbers and you're just getting left behind as your annual increase is below market rate increases then I'd certainly discuss it with your manager. I don't see it as an immediate HR issue, I doubt it's in your contract that everyone in your role is on the same rate.

I can’t believe no one has suggested doing 16% less work per hour.

This is great advice in the meantime.

The best way to find out your market value is to get another job. You can then decide if you want to entertain a counteroffer from your current employer.

This, unless you can leave and get another job for more money, you are on the 'correct' salary for that role.

This, unless you can leave and get another job for more money, you are on the ‘correct’ salary for that role.

That seems like a very backwards way of looking at it.

I'd look at it as "How much would it cost the company to replace you?"

Yep, HR exist for one reason – to protect the company

That's a very adversarial way of looking at it.

You could spin that around and point out that "protecting the company" means:

Making sure they follow the correct legal processes
Giving you pay rises as it's cheaper than recruitment
Training you for the same reason
Making sure everyone is happy and therefore productive

You get a lot further in negotiations if you can work out what your common ground is and play to that rather than going all Mike Brewer and treating it as a competition, shouting numbers and assuming you'll end up somewhere in the middle.

Generally women get paid ~20% less than men for the same job.

Generally women get paid ~20% less than men for the same job.

That's just not true.

Gender pay gap and equal pay are different things.

Been in a similar situation years ago.

Nothing worse than sitting next to someone knowing that they are paid more for doing the same job.

There's no harm in asking about a pay rise, just be ready to justify it with evidence of why you should be paid more.

Unless you absolutely love your job, start looking for another role and apply for a few. Hopefully you'll get a few interviews.

Don't forget the new bloke sitting next to you (earning more) may well have been in your situation before he (or she) moved. I've always accepted that, but you have to weigh up whether you want to move for the money, or stay because you like the job/commute etc.

Only way I've had decent increases is to move on.

However as said it's down to negotiation also. I'm never any good at knowing my value and pushing for it, so what I think is good I find later others have got more and are no better at the job, purely because they asked for more.

Going contacting has made it more complicated as there's no pay review in long term or renewing contracts (as I seem to get stuck in). Have to force the issue. Ideally just saying you're putting your rate up, but a lot of clients dictate the rate, which is bad but I've often been stuck with that.

Though I've gone from some contacts to very good rates and then less on another but happy with it if it's a good job and frankly it's still a decent rate.

Some industries it goes the other way.

Lad leaving was offered 45k to stay.

Company thinks it will fill the post with a competent member of staff for 15-28k.

Lolz.

Raised the issue with HR or your line manager yet OP?

Whenever I read these topics everyone says speak to HR. Do you all work for big companies?
I've got to ask my boss who gives half of nothing.