Inflationary pay rise for all staff except me?

[Nopayrise]

I was recently asked to communicate to my team that they would be receiving inflationary pay rises. The email I received about it said they they were eligible as they had been at the company more than 12 months. I wasn’t told by my manager that I would be receiving this so assumed it was for more junior staff / those paid under a certain amount. But I have since been told that that’s not the case and that I am not getting it as I already have a pay increase due at the same time. This is due to a promotion 3 months ago where my increase was split into 2 bumps - a small increase on starting the role and the same again after 3 months.

i don’t think this is fair as they are two separate things (inflation and promotion) plus it’s not my fault they decided to delay the second half of my pay rise (which had no conditions attached) and therefore it’s almost coinciding with the inflationary pay rise. This second bump is only about 1.5% more than the inflationary pay rise so i am not much better off than I would have been otherwise!

I have worked for the company for several years and this is the first time there has been an inflationary pay rise offered.

obviously it’s discretionary but ACAS says that if a rise is given to some employees and not others it has to be “fair and reasonable” which I don’t believe this is.

Does anyone know where I stand please?

TIA!

That sounds quite normal, many employers work that way. The increase is only for those who have been there x amount of time. Even though you are not new to the company, you are new to that role, so you do not meet the service requirements to be eligible.

We had exact same issue.
No increase if people had an exceptional payrise in last 12 months.
In practice this was ignored as this pay ward was described as "cost of living"

This common at the moment in my industry if you joined the company or had an exceptional pay rise in the last 6 months, no percentage pay rise.

Thanks for the replies. Does it not need to be communicated in advance that I wouldn’t be eligible for another pay rise in the next 6 months?!

@NewsdeskJC that’s what I thought, they’re for two separate things

@Needanadultgapyear would it not need to be stated in advance that I wouldn’t then be eligible for any further rises?

@TappyGilmore nothing in the stated eligibility criteria about changing role just having to have been with the company long enough

Was in communicated in your offer letter, Or original contract, or staff handbook that you wouldn't be eligible?

Your company has done nothing 'wrong', however their communication was poor based on the info you've given.

If it's policy not to issue COL/inflation related pay-rises to anyone who has already received a raise in a certain time period (sadly not uncommon), they should have made that clear. Is it in your company handbook?

If it's not you could always take the matter further internally, but you may want to consider how that might affect your long-term prospects with the company.

I always think this is so unfair and so wrong.

Thanks for the further replies. No, it’s not mentioned anywhere!

You do not have a legal right to a pay increase. However you are at liberty to complain to your manager that you believe you are underpaid. If that doesnt get you anywhere you should look for another job at the pay you feel is appropriate

I'd be annoyed too OP.

It’s not about a right to an increase. It’s about being the only one not getting an otherwise universal, non-performance-or-role-related increase, for an unrelated reason. Is this “fair and reasonable”?

any legal people on this board please?

Anyone who receives an individual discretionary or promotional salary increase between Jan & April when we receive our annual increase is not eligible for the annual increase at my company so assume it’s quite standard.

But is this clearly communicated somewhere?

Pretty standard in most companies so not terribly unusual. Might not be written down but it could
be ‘standard practice of it’s how they operate for everyone .

i think if you go down the road of treating legal action with your organisation , the relationship is irretrievably broken down though.

I never said anything about legal action?! I just want to understand if I have a case to argue here?!

I’ve also realised that one of my team also had a promotion/increase when I did but hers wasn’t split into two bumps. She has received the inflationary increase… so I’m being disadvantaged because of the split payment (a management decision presumably because it was a bigger increase due to me being more senior) rather than because of when I was awarded the promotion / pay wise etc

Think of it this way.

You applied for role A with salary and perks.

This should be priced at the company buyin cost at the market rate on the day you start work in the new role.

So buyin is what they would pay a non-company employee to leave their current job and come work there.

Market rate should include any cost of living amount.

But its likely cheaper to promote up than buyin as internal ees usually dont value themselves at MV

So your company may have screwed you by splitting the wage bump as you worked for a below market rate for a few months and you are now at the correct market rate.
Or you were never going to be paid the market rate

So say old role was 100%
New role was 2% + 3%
MV =105% of benchmark role next year

This year
(100% × 12mths + 2% ×12 mths + 3% × 9mths)

If you stayed in the old role 100%
MV = 101.5%

This year with no promotion
(100% × 12mths + 1.5% × 9 mths)

Then look at perks eg pension linked to base salary plus are future pay rises are calculated on last years annual salary or current salary rate?

Your real issue is would you get better pay for the same role in another company.

[(Edited) to add × as * only added bolding format]

It didn’t used to be and then every year they had people complaining, now it’s added to the promotional letter that they will not be eligible for any annual pay review. I assume they have added to end the confusion/ reduce work rather than legal requirement, especially if the annual increase is a one off and not a contracted annual increase.

Honestly, if It was me, I’d ask the question with some figures showing how they have disadvantaged you, I’d be nice and not find blazing (not saying you would be) and see what you can agree. If they agree anything though, it will be a nice to do rather than a legal requirement.

I simply can't grasp how anyone thinks this is ok.

Let's pretend you've been there years. Everyone gets a pay increase of x%. But you don't, because 6 months ago they promoted you / asked you to step up from old position to new position. From 50k to £55k. So all the old staff who were on £50 are now on £52. But you get nothing, so now you're doing alll the extra for only £3k, because if you'd refused the promotion you'd now also be on 52.

It doesn't make any business sense!

I work for a huge UK company. Thousands of employees and I imagine there's a positive army of HR and legal specialists behind the scenes.

It's common practice for promoted employees to be given a start date of 1st March...sometimes the start date is delayed by several months to get to that 1st March date. That's because general pay increases are effective from 1st March so they only have to pay you your salary increase linked to the promotion and NOT any inflationary/Company wide pay increase on top.

I'm not saying it's right. It's bloody annoying and morally unfair imo. But my company are SO by-the-book in all things I'd be absolutely amazed if this was legally dodgy/unacceptable practice tbh.

I’ve had this, and I also thought it was crap.

The other example is that 55k is the going rate for role A and all in the role are paid 55k

The other managers get the bump to 57k and you are left at 55k.

The next bump is a % of your base
Y1
Role 1 = 50k × 3/12 + 55k × 9/12
Role 2 = 55k × 3/12 + 57k ×9/12

Y2
R1 55k × 10% = 55 + 5.5 = 60.5K
R2 57k × 10% = 57 + 5.7 = 62.7k

So by year 2 the Role pay gap has moved from 2 K to 2.2k

And base pay is also normally used for employer % element of pension and some other perk calcs.

Thanks. I guess people know in advance that that’s the case though as it’s always March 1st? We have never had any inflationary pay rise before

And you weren’t warned either?