To think paying new staff more than long serving staff is just ridiculous

[Celebrityskint]

When I joined the company I work for 7 years ago, I asked for a particular salary. Turns out it was more than my peers already in the company who had more knowledge etc. My counterpart complained and got her salary matched to mine. I was oblivious to this at the time and it was clear I was resented by some of the team (those who had been there longer). Once colleague who had worked up from the lowest paid role in the company was horribly underpaid compared to the rest of us (and probably still is)

in the last 7 years my salary has barely risen. (Probably around 4.5% in total).

The company has taken on new staff: at a salary of almost twice what some of the rest of the team are on. The new staff aren’t any better at their jobs than the longer serving staff: it’s just market rates.

so, I applied for another job outwith the company and lo and behold was offered a significant amount more than my current salary. my existing employer has offered to match this to keep me. Clearly they would need to pay market rates to replace me, and they are losing a lot of experience and expertise

aibu in thinking “no, you underpaid me for years, and are underpaying many of my colleagues”

If they don't pay you what you are worth then they do not value you. They are simply looking for the cheapest option. If they hire to replace you then they will also likely have to pay an agency fee, usually 17-20% of the salary.

I personally would move on to a company that completes regular salary benchmarking to ensure they remain competitive and retain talent. This is how a business demonstrates that it values its people.

I think you’re absolutely correct.

My company (UK private sector) has set pay scales /grades nationally so there is no negotiation (other than that done by the union) and people across the UK are paid the same as everyone else in that (or an equivalent) role.
Over the years, new starters have always had lower pay / T&C's etc and gradually it has ended up with us old timers being on 40% more than a recent recruit at the top of their pay scale.
Needless to say the company are keen to see us go (to reduce their overheads) with no thought whatsoever to the knowledge & skills being irritrevably lost. Various schemes are thought up to ease us out (from relocating the offices to EVR packages) and slowly we are being whittled down.

Me personally, I have taken advantage of EVR to enjoy an early retirement, my work is still there so it will end up being done to a lower standard by someone with far fewer skills on considerably less money.

So true. I’ve resigned today. Increases my salary by 14k with this change. My company is employing depending on experience in the bracket of 30-70 (yeah I know massive bracket). I wasn’t even close to that. Anyone new with my skills would be earning around 55-60. But they’d have less responsibilities than me and yet they’d be earning more than me . Ive not resigned for money reasons but def companies don’t value what they’ve got until another company gets on their way. I tend to reject any counter offer. They’ve had chance to give you the cash in the past , if they haven’t is because they prefer to make themselves rich

Fairly typical in my experience you always fall behind if you stay in the same company, you need to move to grow your salary.

it's normal for new people to get paid more. The best way to increase your salary is move around & negotiate for each new job

It is no different to changing your car insurance or energy supplier. Companies exploit inertia. People who can't be bothered with the hassle of changing.

YANBU but it just seems to be a thing in UK companies. In order to increase your salary you have to leave and go and work elsewhere. Meanwhile, your old company employs new people at an increased rate.

I can't understand the logic behind it

I’m Spanish. In Spain it happens the same thing regarding salaries

I suppose they rely on people not wanting to move (as let’s be honest, change is stressful, but the only constant in the modern workplace is change)

it’s just nuts that the people who have the most skills and knowledge are not paid more (or at least equal) to those who are just in the door

@EasterIssland I’m wondering if you’re in a similar role to me....

IT

Part of my role is focused around studying the salaries of our employees and benchmarking, and making sure it's a fair and equal wage for all regardless of length of service, age, sex, race, so its not all companies that do this.

I step in when a manager wants to offer someone say 10/20k more than a counterpart at an equal level and tell them no (or, yes but everyone else gets a raise)

@EasterIssland me too!!!

@Dazedandconfused10 and that’s how it should be.

in the company I work for i genuinely don’t think it’s discrimination (ie sexism, ageism, racism), I think it’s just trying to keep costs down

My DS recently started looking for another job as he is on very low pay, works long hours and has an expensive long commute. He was surprised at how much higher the pay is for the same role in other companies. The worst thing he discovered though was an advertisement for the identical role as his at another of his company's sites. DS has been covering the role which is advertised as the other site is under staffed. So if they recruit a new staff member he will go back to the site he is meant to be working at on less pay than the new member of staff. DS has worked for the company for over 5 years and is now even more determined to get a new job since seeing that advert. They will be losing an extremely hard working loyal member of staff who regularly works on his days off if someone calls in sick. He doesn't even take his annual leave because the place is so short staffed they don't have cover.

It’s the way it works sadly. Good that they counter offered you to stay. If we did that at my old firm they’d say tough shit, leave.

funnily enough that old firm is hiring now at increased rates and have given long standing, good staff a 3% bonus in sept and another to follow in Dec. I thought it was a pay rise but it’s a one off to counter inflation price increases. So after that they’re still 20-30% underpaid. 🤷🏽‍♀️

YANBU to leave

I was with my previous employer for nearly a decade in a fairly niche role. Pay rise promises were made and broken.

Towards the back end of last year I applied for and was offered a job which gave me a 50% pay rise. It was a shock to my then employer. I was part of the fixtures and fittings. There was an assumption I would never leave ( I had put up with some serious crap in my time). I was never seen as a flight risk.

I left without a backward glance.

Happened to me in my mid 20s, was a wake up call.to how shitty employees treat staff and how loyalty is not rewarded. I've never stayed in a role longer than 2-3 years since then (I immediately looked for a new job when I found out).

@HangOnToYourself if people leave after 2-3 years, companies loose experience and knowledge each time. It takes a while to onboard new staff, and it’s bloody expensive. So it seems nuts from an employers perspective

I've never understood why companies do this as it costs a fortune to advertise and recruit new staff.

However, half the problem sometimes is that staff just don't ask for payrises. In an ideal world, management would bump up your salary in line with the market but if you have staff that never ask, you can understand why they don't give it freely

@Lunar270 you shouldn't have to ask. The company should be in an attempt to keep hold of talent, be watching the market and adjusting salaries accordingly. That makes way more business sense than the cost of hiring and onboarding new staff.

My DH left a job years ago for this reason. They had a rule where internal staff couldn’t be paid more than 10% extra of their current wage when they went for a new job. At the time, he was on £25k and went for a new job, knowing that the maximum he would ever get was £27.5k. He got one of the two positions and the other guy was external. Due to this rule, the newbie got £32k!!! The bosses just seem to think this ‘rule’ was fine so DH voted with his feet as soon as he could get a better paid job.

I’ve got salary reviews annually. Even then my salary was below what is offered in the market.

Something like this happened to me in my first job.
i was earning 25. I asked for 28. They gave me 26. I ended up leaving not long after for a 30k job.

I just got a 25% increase by changing jobs. My company won’t increase your salary more than 10% so even if they increases me 10% then it’d be lower than the salary I got (and I’ve applied for more companies where they were offering much more cash)