… to be a bit miffed to find out new coworker is earning more?

[Randomname85]

I’ve been the sole EA at a company for a few years - we’ve hired a new EA, I’ve been heavily involved in the hiring process. She will be supporting less senior people (I am not hierarchical at all but just for info), but I’ve just noticed her starting salary is £12k more than me - I can’t help feel a little undervalued by this especially considering I got my annual feedback at the end of last year and it was glowing.

AIBU?

There are four people at our workplace doing the same job. However I don't think we should receive the same salary. We all being different amounts of experience and skills and contribute differently to the workplace.

This happened to me before. I was fuming! It took all my balls but I brought it up with my boss and said I would have to start looking elsewhere as obviously my salary wasn't the going market rate. He gave me a fantastic payrise and was very apologetic and embarrassed. This may be slightly different though as he had no hand in the recruitment of this person so don't think he would have known the discrepancies in our salaries.

Op, what do you think the ‘right’ motive would be to have to ask for a raise?

@AdviceNeeded367

Thats the thing with the current recruitment climate - staff shortages mean that candidates can negotiate terms, including inflated salaries.

The current recruitment climate is insane. So now your chance Op. Either negotiate internally. You legitimately saw her salary. You work for more senior stakeholders and have recently had glowing feedback, plus have internal experience. Use that. But I’d also put the feelers out externally. You now know what the market is paying. So don’t be afraid to also use that information to your advantage. Speak to agencies, put yourself as ‘open’ on LinkedIn, sign up for job sites. See what your worth and believe in yourself. Or silently fume. Up to you!

Make appointment to see your boss and tell boss you are very disappointed that new worker is valued higher than you. Does she have higher qualifications than you? If not demand equivalent pay. If boss refuses hand in notice.

This happened to me, except with an existing colleague. I found out via various inboxes i manage, not officially, that they were going to go from being on the same salary as me to £15k more. To say I had an emotional response was an understatement. I felt physically sick which sounds dramatic but when you think you are working your butt off and doing really well and see someone else being rewarded (potentially for not contributing enough) it hurts so bad. So I pretty much immediately booked a meeting to discuss, rightly or wrongly seeing as i shouldn't have known the info. I cried, yep, cried in the meeting.. but i got my salary matched. Annoyingly we are now going through the process of hiring another EA (which i have been managing) and it concerns me they will end up earning more than me, even though i have set the salary to match. Urgh i hate it all. The longer I spend working the more I realise how little thee amounts of money mean to the company and how little of a sh*t they give about you potentially feeling hard done by either. As someone said above, try to remove all personal emotional attachment to it and try to see it as a business transaction.

@AliceET88 the best thing is to talk about salaries with trusted colleagues.

Employers HATE that but it's in employees' favour.

I think this one is easy. Immediate meeting. It has come to my attention. Please can I have my salary matched otherwise I believe my position here will be untenable.

Then either they up your salary and you get a nice big raise or you know they don't value you at all and you end up on that salary anyway at a new company now that you know what going market rate is.

This exact same thing happened to my friend who was asked to hire someone to work for her on a salary of 10K more. They matched it and gave her more, as she was senior, and back-dated it.

@chopc I totally appreciate that for sure but that’s not the case here. We’re both ‘senior’ EAs with pretty identical experience and my workload is definitely more significant, in fact the idea was I would hand over some of my work to her on a regular basis when I have too much on.

@Winniemarysarah I guess without going into numbers directly, I am earning £23k more in this job full time than in my last job 🙈 it took me a long time to accept I was worth of this salary and generally have imposter syndrome in my career but my feedback at the end of last year solidified my ‘worth’ so I felt confident on that. So considering I am on a good salary as it is, is it right to say I’m unhappy just because someone in the same job is earning more? It’s really hard to know - but I do have a pit in my stomach and it has certainly immediately demotivated me and made me want to switch off for the day (it’s a remote job).

@Totalwasteofpaper

12K is SIGNIFICANT on your base.

I think you have three options

1. make a case
2. go to market get a job offer and ask them to counter
3. go to market get a job offer, take it and never look back!

i generally go for option 3

I’d go for 1) then 3) probably afterwards (depending on how much I enjoyed the job the rest of the time).

@Randomname85 then absolutely state your case and get your pay rise 💪🏽

I’m not very good at being assertive or advocating for myself
Time to change that behaviour!

Simply, and stupidly, you likely need to move companies and negotiate better as a new hire.

I’m a hiring manager and have this issue as company policy. I can give an existing staff member a maximum increase of x% ( it’s piss poor), and that’s with jumping through all sorts of hoops, but I can negotiate a current competitive market rate with a new hire. It’s obvious madness. I don’t make the rules though and can’t change them so it is what it is. I have great, experienced staff on less than I have inexperienced new hires because of current market shortages. It kills me and it’s unfair. I’m transparent and while I don’t disclose package $, I tell my experienced, skilled staff to leave and negotiate at another company as a new hire if $ are important to them as they are in a shit position and I’m helpless to do anything.

Doesn't matter if you earn £23k more in this job than your last, you're being fucked over. Bring it up with your manager. The worst outcome is that they say no, or say you can have a maximum of a 10% rise which would still be lower than their income. Fight for your pay.

I would also recommend getting an offer from elsewhere and going back to your company. It's amazing what can happen when you threaten them with leaving...

A job is worth what it’s worth. Your company say that the EA position is worth X (your salary + £12k).
So therefore you should be in that ballpoint. A couple of grand would be understandable because of the market changes but £12k??? No.

They are underpaying you based on what they are actually prepared to pay another EA.

Unless she has significant other experience or qualifications which make her a niche hire or specialist then there is no other explanation for why it would be such a massive % increase over the existing role value.

You can do this!!! What’s the worst that can happen they say no? Then you can say “of course I understand (whatever their reasons are) and as I’m sure you can understand I will start making decisions for my career and salary to progress”
A friend of mine asked for a pay rise and to continue working from home - they said no to both within 2 weeks he got an offer and accepted for 10k more and WFH in contract. He saw them then advertising his job at his requested pay rise…. They were just being cheeky getting him for less as he had been there 10 years and he knows they wanted to keep him as his last 121 had been really positive.

[quote Randomname85]@chopc I totally appreciate that for sure but that’s not the case here. We’re both ‘senior’ EAs with pretty identical experience and my workload is definitely more significant, in fact the idea was I would hand over some of my work to her on a regular basis when I have too much on.

@Winniemarysarah I guess without going into numbers directly, I am earning £23k more in this job full time than in my last job 🙈 it took me a long time to accept I was worth of this salary and generally have imposter syndrome in my career but my feedback at the end of last year solidified my ‘worth’ so I felt confident on that. So considering I am on a good salary as it is, is it right to say I’m unhappy just because someone in the same job is earning more? It’s really hard to know - but I do have a pit in my stomach and it has certainly immediately demotivated me and made me want to switch off for the day (it’s a remote job).[/quote]
You’re talking yourself out of it already.
I think you should discuss this with your manager as it will slowly eat you up.
I have done this twice in the same role. The first time, I’ve found out my direct report was earning £20k more than I was and then also found out I was the least paid on the management team (80% men). My salary was very good but I felt cheated.
I tackled it by booking a meeting with my boss and also preparing a pack with all my achievement s and feedback from colleagues. I negotiated increases tied to certain milestones or goals and the timeline too. I now earn twice as much in the same role. It took about 12 months.
Point is, you need to set this right as it could also affect your future earnings .

This is entirely standard.

Your options are to negotiate a raise and/or get a new job elsewhere.

If you stay, the implication is that you are happy enough of can't get another job.

If you use the salary of your new colleague as the sole, or even main reason to negotiate a raise, you are starting from a position of weakness. Much more powerful is to get a better job then give them a chance to match the salary you have been offered. Or at least point out that average salaries in the market are and you really don't want them to incur all the costs of recruiting and need to offer a higher salary to attract the best.

You do, of course, need to follow through snd resign if they don't at least match the new salary. If you are not ready to do that, better to resign yourself to know that you don't have it in you to negotiate a higher salary. Not everyone does. It's not just or even mainly about your worth, it's about the market.

Good luck.

@HoppingPavlova this is very true. I was offered a salary £20k above my previous salary for essentially the same job and knew that my previous manager would simply not be able to even approximately match it. It wasnt that she didnt think I was worth it but 'the rules' meant she would have too many hoops to jump through to be able to put a significant raise in place within the 24 hours I needed.

They are now stuck trying to replace me and having to offer only a few £k more than I was on because 'the rules' dont allow for significant increase on what the predecessor was paid.

GnomeDePlume Yep, and the absolute crime is I can’t give an existing person an increase to current market rate. They have to leave because I’m ‘not allowed’ to do that, but I can hire a new person at current market rate. It makes zero sense and realistically loses the company money in the hire/training process alone (don’t even go there with loss of experience), but I have zero control over this.

Are we all missing this part of the original post: " She will be supporting less senior people"

Don't ask for an equal salary, ask for one higher. You're job is more important, you should be paid more not the same.

IE: Ask for an £18k increase, not £12k.

If you ask for parity you have nowhere to go if they start to negotiate. If you start high then you could always reduce your request back to parity as a compromise.

If they refuse don't hand in your notice straight away, that's idiotic, you have to play the game. Be polite, keep you nose clean but then put all your efforts into getting a better paid job.

Good luck.

Go to market, get an offer, table it with current employer. If they don't match or better it take new job.

I saw a stat once that said if you don't move every two years or so you can lose something like 90k over the course of your career assuming in a professional / well paid role.

I've just moved after 16 years and got a 36k increase. I was underpaid in the previous role but they were never going to bring me up to market rate. Mat leave and part time for five years really fucked up my remuneration.

Mrs hr's are advertising a position similar to hers ATM.
The salary range offered is between £4000-£12000 more than she takes home.😂😳
The company have been under paying for yrs, she has noticed this and received a substantial rise after threatening to leave

Realistically OP now that you know you can't put this knowledge away. It'll eat at you over time and you'll get cross at times seeing the other EA maybe not be as busy knowing they're paid far more. The time is now to talk to someone, explain you have noticed the discrepancy, you are disappointed at the difference, are they aware etc and you are making it easy for them to either say oh god no I didn't realise or oh bugger. But if you do nothing you'll lose the moment

I think you need to ask for a formal review of pay from your manager, chances are they know and are advocating for you or don't know and would if they did if they're a decent person anyway. You don't need to say how you know if you've just been a bit nosey to find out.