AIBU to think my employer should pay the going rate for my services?

[Nikkifa]

Pretty miffed but keen to hear the opinions of others. Maybe I'm just greedy.

I work for the EMEA region of a U.S. Based global organisation. I'm now the sole HR contact and previously reported into a HR Manager until she left under 'voluntary redundancy'. All quite hush hush but I suspect the company gave her a v attractive package to leave. I was asked to take on her work. Fast forward a year and I have taken on all her work and have only been given a £7k uplift. She was paid nearly £40k more than me for her role alone. I am doing my job and hers all rolled into one. I queried this with my new manager who said "we looked at your experience and how much of her role you've taken on". Absolute nonsense. None of her work has miraculously vanished and in fact she had an awful reputation and employees tell me she was a nightmare and they are pleased she has gone because stuff now actually gets done. My manager (who is pretty clueless) can't understand why I am demanding a title change and more money. AIBU?!

Yes, sorry. They may well have cut her due to cost.

Having said that, if your role is "equal" to a colleague who is the opposite sex (which can include a predecessor) then you could have an equal pay claim. This can include people doing completely different jobs. In your situation though they could still run a defence that the difference is nothing to do with sex and she was overpaid and they need to cut cost. Or they could argue the roles were not equal.

If you're both female though the equal pay route isn't open to you.

So what is the 'going rate'? You can't look at a sample of one (the previous HR manager) to estimate that. What do other companies pay.

In my experience the only way to deal with this issue is to find other employment which will pay you the going rate. They may renegotiate when you hand in your notice but the kind of management that expects junior staff to pick up the slack of more senior staff leaving us not sufficiently business minded to see the problems all of their staff leaving will cost.

Thanks. No we're both female so unfortunately doesn't apply. The most annoying thing about the situation is that you'd never in a million years find someone with my job title doing the stuff I'm doing. I'm an 'advisor' doing director level stuff. Due to the nature of my role I have access to full salary records and other employees elsewhere have been given correct job recodings and salary increases in identical situations.

I work in the same field.

TBH if your manager was earning £40k more than you (and I'm assuming you were paid more than NMW) and you've had a £7k rise then you probably are being paid more or less the going rate. Senior HR roles are generally not as well paid as senior roles in other fields and it sound like for her post the job holder needs more experience than you have. She may well have been crap at the job (and that might be why she's left) but that doesn't change the fact that her salary was probably initially set due to her apparent skills and experience.

If you PM me your PQE, level of CIPD qualification, salary and the city you work in I can give you a pretty good idea of whether your salary is currently at the going rate.

Thanks senua - at least £10k more than I'm on if I'm being v conservative. I work in a niche industry where people in my position will be paid at least £40k more than what I'm on. My equivalent in APAC is on the same as my previous manager for example. Her responsibilities are the same as mine but I am busier on account of the fact I'm doing my previous job too!

Look on the bright side - you've been given a promotion without asking for it. Take your skillset to the open market and see what other companies will pay. Why do you want to stay in a job where you are doing the work of two people.

And, seriously, who cares about job titles? It's what you have done/achieved that will get you hired, not your title. (Why am I telling an HR person this?)

It sounds like you have a case for getting your job re-rated but good luck with that ... You may need to get another job offer before they will even consider it.

We have just lost a very valued member of the team because when we asked HR to re-evaluate his role (he had been offered a similar job elsewhere for a very substantially higher salary) they came up with a silly figure. He's gone to the more realistic employer, needless to say. Their gain, our loss.

I have to ask, why have you taken on the work? You work in HR...why didn't you collate the data on what you should be paid to prove a case before taking on the work?
Again, you work in HR...you know organisations take the piss given half a chance. Yes, they are wrong but if people keep accepting jobs on these crappy terms....unless you desperately neede extra cash on any terms?

Go to an agency that specialises in your field and ask them to put out feelers for you. When you are offered a job at the correct salary level, go to your manager and tell them. If they don't buck up and match it, then you can leave to your new, well-paying job.

If you have good reason to believe that you are being exploited, then you should take positive action to rectify it. We're in this to earn actual money, not just while away the time until retirement. Don't let yourself be walked over by a stingy/clueless/both employer.

Are you based in the UK? Comparing salaries across countries is a very tricky job, because different countries have different entitlements and so on. I don't expect my private health cover to be the same as colleagues based in countries where the employer is expected to cover the health costs because in that country, there's no free-at-the-point-if-delivery NHS. Plus taxation levels differ, the cost of living differs, statutory holiday entitlements, maternity rights etc, etc.

Find out about salaries for your role in the UK (or whichever country you're in) and start from there. Build your case - if they're looking at how much of your predecessor's role you've taken on, do you agree with what they say, or have they overlooked that you're also doing X and Y on top of A, B, C?Are they waiting for a performance review to see that you're coping with the new responsibilities?

I suspect they wanted to cut costs. You had no experience in her role as I understand it so to start with at least you were not as "valuable"

Others have made very useful comments. I am not well-informed in the area but the world is a market and I am sure that if you are worth it someone will pay it.

You started a thread on this about a month ago , didn't you ?