Direct report on the same salary

[misssunshine4040]

I have been in my job for a year now in a senior management position.

Aprils pay reviews have been published on the system we use and I had a notification to inform me of my teams new rates of pay,

My colleague was promoted to the level below me and I am their line manager but following the April pay increase they are now on the exact same salary as me despite have a more junior role and less responsibility.

Am I being unreasonable to feel uncomfortable about this?

Of course I have. But I think it's odd that @KentishMama appears to just be shrugging her shoulders and acting as if it is normal that male direct reports of hers are being paid more than her for doing a lesser job just because they're male. If that's the truth of the matter then she needs to put her big girl pants on and kick up an almighty fuss about it. Bring an equal pay claim. Actually use the law that is on her side.

If they can give it to the employee you are referring to they can likewise give it to you to maintain differentials. Could it be an error? Maybe ask this first?

Ah ok, I didn't get that from your initial comment. Yes, I don't agree with women just accepting that "it is what it is". I quit my last job in protest over a new male employee being paid significantly more than me for doing the same job, despite me even having more experience/qualifications than him. My employer refused to remedy the situation, so I quit.

Did you just quit, or did you try to bring an equal pay claim?

Time to have a chat with your manager OP.

This is not right - do not be a pushover, if you have more responsibility then you should be paid more.

In my corporate job there's no way two people on different levels in the same team/role would be paid the same.

The company might be pausing pay increases at the moment but this lies outside of that scope.

I don't understand those saying it's not right to use the information you have as leverage - it absolutely is!! I would not be putting up with this if I were in your shoes.

@MissScarletInTheBallroom no one was asking for pay rises, the April rise in national minimum wage meant that the company had to push up wages. Most of us got 2% rise but certain others including my direct report got a lot more that pushed their salary to the same as mine

Your direct report presumably isn't on NMW though, because if they are and they are now earning more than you, that would mean you were on less than NMW.

Are you saying that you are now both on the new NMW?

I wouldn't be doing a job that involved management responsibilities of any kind for NMW.

I know I have senior colleagues who are paid less than me due to my length of service and qualifications. I have no desire for management. They wanted leadership promotions and went for them but the uplift was a % of their existing salary band which was lower than what I was on.

Plenty of roles have pay scales that overlap. I’m paid significantly more than the starting salary for the role I report into.

Instead of getting annoyed that someone who reports into you is paid well you should work at your own salary negotiating skills. Punching down is never a good look in the workplace.

I repeatedly asked my employer to pay me the same as the male new start. They refused. I didn't take any legal route with them because it wasn't a career job, it was a part-time NMW job, and I was fed up with how staff were treated generally, (I had been on the receiving end of aggression, including physical from two male members of staff and neither were sacked). So I just left. ACAS did say I would have a case to take them to a Tribunal but for me, it wasn't worth the energy/stress/time.

Fair enough. I hope you found a better job afterwards.

I work in Tech. On average, men are hired for 20% more than women at the levels that I manage. Classic gender pay gap.

And the women are doing nothing about this because...?

I mean, if you can literally see the gender pay gap between the people that you manage, why are you not doing anything about it?

I agree with you. It is now illegal for employers in the UK to restrict employees from speaking about salaries. This was (at least partly) to prevent pay discrimination.

So even if the OP did not have access to her direct reports salaries, employers should assume that staff have knowledge (or could have knowledge) of what others get paid.

Im not sure why OP negotiating for better pay would be used as a way to get rid of her as suggested by the earlier poster?

No, was a struggle to get anything that worked around my husband's job and home educating our children, so I started my own business instead. Still early days but hoping it'll grow! 🙂

Who says I'm not doing anything about it? I've offered the last three women that I hired a bigger starting salary than they asked for. I can't fix it over night, or take money away from male direct reports and give it to women instead though...

One of the most infuriating things is that female applicants never negotiate well. I just hired a senior manager with ten years of experience who was super timid when asked for salary expectations. She gave us a really low range, so I offered her about 12% more than top of the range she asked for.

No, it means that the company have move everyone up pay to widen the gap from NMW.
We have many colleagues in the company on NMW and they of course got the uplift.
Everyone in the group got a pay rise as April is time this happens and has done in every place I have worked.
Neither me nor my direct report were on NMW before the rise

What are you think of doing?

Im not sure why OP negotiating for better pay would be used as a way to get rid of her as suggested by the earlier poster?

If you read what was written carefully you'll see that that was not suggested.

OK, so they have messed up. If the idea was that everyone should move up so that there is still a difference between those on NMW and those not on NMW, you should have got an appropriate pay rise which didn't result in you getting paid less or the same as someone who reports to you.

I'm pretty sure my line manager is paid around the same ballpark figure as me as I joined the company at the top of my pay band whilst she's been there for a while but only promoted recently. The pay bands overlap. I also have a direct report who earns slightly more than me because they are in a location with higher pay rates.

This is completely normal where I work. It has nothing to do with male/ female at all. It’s just historical/ how long they’ve been there.

Ultimately you agreed to do a job for a salary. What others are on isn’t relevant to that really.

We have overlap so a top of band below is on same as band that manages them. It obviously makes it difficult to persuade people to go for the manager roles (lots of extra hassle and zero pay rise)
But if you aren’t in such a structured place and grade below has negotiated more I’d look to do same.

Yep. Happened to me in one company about ten years ago.

That’s a hell of a bluff though if you’re not absolutely happy to follow through !