To be really pissed off that the new bloke at work is earning so much more than me?

[Winecrafting]

I work for a small company doing telesales. The other telesales person is also female. We each receive NMW plus commission of £75 for each sale that we make that goes ahead.

3 weeks ago a new male telesales staff member started.

I am highly fucked off this week having discovered that he is being paid £150 per sale that he does, ie double the commission that my female colleague and I get.

Not only that but the boss has decided that it is best if the new man deals with all of the internet enquiries/potential sales too, hence he has lots of ready-made sales landing in his lap without him having to actually do any groundwork! As far as I know, it is a permanent thing for him to deal with the internet sales.

I really do not know where to go from here. I know the right thing to do is for myself and other female colleague to approach our boss but our boss is very much of the mindset that if we don't like the job we can fuck off and work elsewhere.

If you are doing the same job that is I think illegal.

Maybe try ACAS for advice but given your boss sounds like a dick I would start looking for another job anyway.

Do you know why he is earning more? Is he better qualified? Has more of a track record?

Yes you should approach your boss and ask why. Make notes of the time and date of the meeting/conversation and what the response was.
If you do not get a satisfactory answer or explanation then write a letter of grievance. If your company does not have a grievance procedure to look up, they still have to take this seriously. Acas can advise you.
Hopefully this should resolve it, as unless there are really good reasons why, this is unlawful.
If you've gone through all of that and it is still not fair you may have an equal pay claim. You would need 2 years service to go to tribunal with it though so be careful if you don't.
Good luck.

Report it. This is illegal. Get plenty of evidence in writing first though!

1. he's not doing the same job though, is he? They are doing only telesales and he is doing telesakes and Internet sales responses.

2. you don't need two years service to bring a discrimination claim, that is only for (non automatic) unfair dismissal claims.

As said previously, perhaps he has much more experience and a much more successful track record. If you want to attract better staff you have to pay them more.

I earn more than two female coworkers because I am better qualified & have years of experience. It didn't go down well when they found out after some prying. How did you find out?

I would be careful not to job to conclusions until you ask someone (the boss) outright, it could cause problems.

I would fuck off and get a better job. Good sales staff are not that easy to find.

After an open office discussion, I found out a male colleague doing exactly the same job as me was being paid more.
I asked the boss why, who at first flustered & said "you shouldn't be discussing your wages with them" but then increased mine to match.
I asked, I got, but it was based on information I was certain about.

Definitely go to your boss if your certain of this information. It's illegal and sexual discriminationin to give the man more work than his female counterparts.

This is why we should all move on every couple of years. New people coming in always earn more than the existing staff. When you're recruiting you need to offer enough to attract someone good away from another job. To retain, you only need to offer enough that the existing staff member won't bother moving.

Absolutely challenge it, but there will be loads of reasons they can state why he is due the extra money, better qualified, better experience, better track record, different role. If they think they're on dodgy ground, they can just "promote" him and make him teamleader or something.

How did you find out how much he was earning? If he is doing the same job and is of similar experience he has to be paid the same. I found out that a colleague being recruited to cover my mat leave was getting paid more than me when I got copied into an email by mistake - when I raised it with my boss and HR they increased my salary to match..

he's not doing the same job though, is he? They are doing only telesales and he is doing telesakes and Internet sales responses

^ this. If he is doing telesales and Internet sales that would explain the double commision. £75 for each.

Yes he is doing the same job as my colleague and I; the internet thing means that he gets sales basically put in his lap without groundwork, so therefore more opportunity to earn more! He does telesales too. Each sale, whether originating from internet or telephone call, nets him £150.

He told us how much commission he gets. I'm assuming it's the truth as I can't imagine why he would lie about it. It came about in a conversation, he's not been bragging about it.

That's awful. Yes this illegal. I second the advice to talk to ACAS or your union of you're a member.

Is he being paid more than you for doing the same job? That's illegal.

Yes but with extra tweaks made to his job to make it easier but job titles are the same.

1970 Equal Pay Act would be your friend here. Copying from Wikipedia as I can't remember much of the wording. You must prove

1. That the work done by the claimant is the same, or broadly the same, as the other employee.

1. That the work done by the claimant is of equal value (in terms of effort, skill, decision and similar demands) to that of the other employee.

1. That the work done by the claimant is rated (by a job evaluation study) the same as that of the other employee.