AIBU to discuss pay discrepancy with boss?

[Sunlove]

I found out yesterday that a colleague that started at the same time as me is earning considerably more than I do.

I appreciate that his salary was higher as he had more experience at the time of hire, and have no issue with that.

The issue for me is that since we started employment I have been promoted and am often left in charge of the department when our boss is away, amongst other additional responsibilities, whilst my colleague has actually had his probation extended for not meeting targets etc. Even with my promotion and the pay rise that came with it he still earns more than me though.

AIBU to speak to my boss about this, or is it just a case of getting on with it and accepting that sometimes life isn’t fair?

I could have written your post!
I started my role at the same time as two men. Two years down the line I find out that they were both hired at almost £10k more than me but once I got a promotion they were still making more money than I was (their roles being junior to mine). At the point I challenged it one had another pay increase and was making more than £5k more than me and I was more senior.

I was quite bolshy about it because I knew I was leaving soon and because someone else was also challenging their pay at the time. So if I hadn’t been in this situation I might have gone about it differently.

I asked my manager to discuss my pay, asked him to explain why the two men were paid more. After many many meetings (because he never paid any attention to what i was saying to him) I threatened to raise a grievance in the basis of gender discrimination. It was sorted pretty quickly after that.

I would advise you talk to someone about it. It’s not right. I was fobbed off by people online when I asked for advice. Everyone said that they’d negotiated better packages. So what? Doesn’t make it right and doesn’t mean you can’t challenge it.

Gather job descriptions and evidence that you are doing a more senior role. Get everything in writing.

Companies know what they are doing is wrong but rely on people not talking about pay.

Good luck. In the end I got a £10k pay rise and backdated pay. My manager doesn’t seem to hate me either

Good luck

In many countries salary is published online so you can find out how much they get paid precisely so situations like this can’t occur. Make it a business case why you should be paid more (including pay equality considering equal pay has been law for quite some time now. There is no reason why you shouldn’t be paid more given that you are doing a more qualified job.
I asked my manager why a woman who was less well qualified, had less experience and was the level below me was getting paid more and the answer was that she asked for it and they needed her at the point of hire. He did agree it wasn’t fair and upped my salary.
I can’t believe that people are getting so uppity about knowing his salary. This is why women don’t get paid as well as men.