Training up colleague who earns more than me

[BIankets]

I’m a NHS employee at one of the lower points of my pay band, in a specialist role. A new starter has the same job title as me although has very limited experience. He has come from another organisation and was the same band as me at that organisation, doing an entirely different (irrelevant) role. He has moved to my organisation to do this specialist role which he has absolutely no experience of (not a problem at all - it’s very much a case of learning on the job, which is what I did). He is at the top of this pay band; earning £5k more than me. I am expected to directly train him. I know this is how pay bands work and I know my manager can’t decrease his pay or up mine, but AIBU for being annoyed at having to be responsible for training up someone who earns more than me?

That’s bollocks! I’m pissed on your behalf!

No it isn’t fair.
But unless there is someone else that can do it....it looks like it’s going to be you.

Why can't your manager increase your pay? Did they not make the decision to pay him more than you?

That’s what you get working for the NHS you can’t expect it not to happen.
I think it’s a good thing that longer service is rewarded, however, the paybands are being changed soon so you reach the top more quickly.

I don’t really understand how NHS pay bands work, but isn’t this an equal pay issue? As his experience isn’t relevant, that’s not a factor in why a male comparator is being paid more.

Is he bringing other skills to the role though? So once he’s learned the skills you need to reach him, he will have those skills plus others? E.g I’ve had to train team heads how to use IT systems and processes we use at work, but once they’ve mastered those, they are able to do the job plus management experience/project management experience.

This happens with any organisation that takes the piss

So all of them

I’d talk to your manager but I don’t know what mechanism there might be for extra pay etc.

NHS pay bands work like this. They have a band say, band 5 where the starting salary is x and the "top of the band" is y. You don't choose where to go on it. When you start a job on that band you get paid x and then go up in yearly increments (ish it's recently changed for some bands). If you're new colleague has switched from one job to another but it's still the same band, ie band 5 but they had already been a band 5 for say 10 years they of course keep that pay scale, despite changing job, as long as the new job is the same pay scale.
NHS pay scales within bands (for 8c and below) are based on years service in that band.

You're both band x but he's been band x for longer. It's how the NHS works. Unfair on you maybe, but then no one would move to another role deemed to be the same "band" and lose money.

I'd just tough it out to be honest! Think of it like this, your pay will continue to increase until you reach top of band, his won't as he's already there. And £5k over the year isn't much of a difference after tax etc.

YANBU but nothing will change, I've recently been in exactly the same position and its frustrating as hell. My trainee was a band above me (in fact halfway up and I'm near the bottom of mine) and pleasant but useless. Banding is banding, sometimes it works in your favour but generally it doesn't. Sorry 🙁

Thanks guys. With NHS pay scales it’s not possible to leapfrog pay points or negotiate a raise, it’s an automatic annual progression (assuming basic requirements are met). Similarly it wouldn’t have been possible for him to negotiate his salary when he started: the job is advertised at a set band of pay, if you were already working within that band then you start at the point you were on (top, in his case) and if you’re new to the band you start at the bottom. His years of experience aren’t relevant and don’t give him any advantage or ‘added value’ over me: think was a receptionist but how a HCA, or was a radiographer but now works in PALS. My choices are to suck it up or leave, really.

It's crap but incremental pay is what it is in the NHS. When I was band 6 I had to train up 2x band 6s who'd been redeployed into our specialist role. Both were at the top of their band whereas I wasn't and I carried the bulk of the workload even when they were deemed as "trained" as they didn't know how the team worked and had no interest in learning. They were literally just there for the money until something else came up.

It is super annoying and frustrating but I suppose we have to remember that they've worked to their incremental point 🤷🏼‍♀️

My advice would be to suck it up, train them well - and let it go because it isn't worth the energy. Speaking from experience as I wound myself up in knots about it and the only person that suffered for it was me!

Good luck

Also, have had to train our Band 8a 😳 - wish I could get a rise to the £ they're on! 😂

It is common in lots of jobs for someone in less pay to end up training up someone who is paid more. Really not that uncommon.

I work in the NHS and often take on things akin to a higher pay band, but do really value the flexible working options the job gives me - so take it as a sort of swings and roundabouts situation. Can you look at the KSF and see if your band is reflective of delivering training - as jobs can be re-evaluated if responsibilities evolve? If not, at least it is good experience for you and your CV.

It's a little ironic as pay bands are set up to make things fair. I guess no system is always completely fair but paybands probably do take a lot of "isms" (sexism, etc) out of the equation.

It isn't just the NHS - this is the reality almost everywhere. Men still get paid more. You probably need to be more assertive about it with your Manager.

I don't understand why training someone who earns a bit more is an issue.

He's in a new role and you are passing on your expertise. Lots of jobs might involve someone with specific experience training someone on more pay.

Be thankful you have a pay scale.

Its really not that uncommon

I've just moved into a new role managing a team. The people on the lower band will have to show me how certain things work, how to use a system. But I will be managing the team and have other responsibilties which is why I'm paid more. I've had to train my managers in the past

that could very well happen in the private sector too - which is why we keep salaries confidential. Better for moral all around.

It's annoying, I used to manage someone and cover their role when they were off, and they were on £5k more than me. It wasn't any sort of specialist role and didn't require any particular set of skills or experience, she was very good at the job and I didn't begrudge her it, but was annoyed I wasn't on more hah. Incremental payscales you win some you lose some, unfortunately. I can see why you're annoyed though, things like that do zero for morale.

”It's a little ironic as pay bands are set up to make things fair.”

Nothing remotely fair about rewarding people more for the technicality of having been employed by the NHS for longer, rather than for having greater skills, more (relevant) experience or higher performance.

Rewarding people for length of service rather than the actual value of their contribution is not at all fair, and leads to all sorts of potential problems like age discrimination and equal pay issues.

While I don't deny that the pay gap between men and women is an issue in many cases, in this specific case I think YABU. He's higher up the scale in your band because he's worked as a band 5 for longer, that's just how the NHS works. If he'd been appointed as a band 6 despite doing an identical or equivalent role to you that would be unfair, but in this case is just a reflection of time served, which is hardly an unreasonable thing to reward.

My mil is retired civil service. She had to train the person who got her job when it was advertised. The person was in a higher band, and mil had been doing the job as cover for mat leave.

When my DP was in the NHS, he was paid more than his manager.