Salary issue - is it discrimination?

[TwelveDancing]

I've worked for the same company for around 7 years. About 4 years ago the company introduced and published job families with grades within them, and a pay scale that related to the grade.

For the last 3 years I have been working at grade 3 and my current salary is right at the lower end of the pay band for that grade.

My manager has acknowledged that I am now working at grade 4, but my salary is still at the low end of grade 3. To bring me up to grade 4 would require a significant payrise.

The company will argue that they cannot afford to raise my salary in line with the published payscale.

Has anyone experience of this type of situation? Could the company justify a decision to pay me less than for eg a male colleague at grade 4 because they can't afford it?

So has your job actually changed? And are there other people on a grade 4 doing the same work as you? How come your salary is right at the lower end of a grade 3 when you have been in the job for three years - do you not move up the scale automatically?

Similar thing often happens in my work - NHS. Ask them to regrade your job - if it's graded at a 4 then they should pay you that. On the other hand they might just change your job description so you are working to a grade 3.

Re discimination - it doesn't sound as if it's got anything to do with your gender. If it was a woman working in the other post she would get paid at a grade4 too?? If you were a man you would be in the same position?

Thanks for your thoughts.

My job has changed, I have a new job title and job description, and more responsibility including line management.

However, the grade is not entirely related to a job, its related to the skills, knowledge, experience etc of an individual. So I could be doing the same job at grade 3 and grade 4, but at grade 3 I'd have less responsibility and be supervised more closely.

No its not really related to my gender. There will be both women and men being paid the correct rate for level 4.

I could be a man in the same position.

I see - sorry, I had assumed that the pay grade was linked to the job and not the skill set. If it is linked to skills, knowledge and experience, and your boss has gone on record as saying that you're working at a grade 4 level, I don't see how they can't pay you at that rate.

Thanks Jinsei, neither can I! But my from my initial discussions with my manager I suspect they are going to make the excuse that they can't afford to. We've had several redundancies in the last 2 years and in every respect resources are stretched.

I just wonder where I stand really and if I'm offered less than the correct salary for grade 4, should I take it further?

If you have a male comparator who is doing the same or an equivalent job, and is paid more, then there is a potential equal pay issue.

If it's not about gender, and indeed is at least partly based on your own personal skills knowledge and experience, then unless you can demonstrate that a man with the same skills etc is paid more, and the reason you are not is at least partly due to your gender then there's not a discrimination issue.

If there's not a discrimination issue and you are paid more than the minimum wage, there is no more legislation left to assist you. Your employer are not legally obliged to follow their own salary scales, and although it might be unfair, it's not illegal.

Thanks Flowery. I am also part time and always have been, not sure if that makes a difference. They know I am not keen to leave due to p/t hours + flexibility.

I will get confirmation of any payrise soon. I'll see what they offer me.

I am well versed in this kind of thing - NHS here also. Years ago our departmental manager decreed that our job would not go above a certain band, never mind that the work was very definitely the band above. It stinks and is extremely exploitative. In my experience they will make you out to be a troublemaker and naive to think you could possibly be regraded owing to the current state of the NHS.

our job descriptions were rewritten to sound more simplistic and leave out complex aspects of our job, things we did (eg patient contact, confidentiality etc.) which automatically entailed a higher grade for other staff were missed out.

I don't know what the solution is, we could demand rebanding But they have of round it before and would again. I don't know where you would stand if you started working to your job description only, and refusing extra duties.

In terms of being part time, you can and should still be compared to full timers doing equivalent work, on a pro rata basis, and in addition you are specifically protected against being treated less favourably because of your part time status.