Unfair pay

[AnotherBreakfast]

Recently been promoted and got a 10% pay increase.
Have since found out that I am paid a lot less than my colleagues and they are looking to recruit the new me on c£5-7k more than they were paying me who had been in post for 3 years.
This would leave the gap between me and the person I will manage as very low and I'm incredibly resentful of the situation.
I was on maternity for a year and during this time they recruited someone at the same level as me starting on £2k more than I was on.
Is there grounds here for me to raise a grievance on unfair pay? What is the reality of this?
I am experienced and was experienced when I came into role almost 4 years ago...

People coming in from outside can often negotiate higher salaries, it isn’t particularly unusual.

Do you know everything about the other people, their qualifications, skills and experiences to know that this is unfair?

I think I would start by asking for another pay rise rather than starting a grievance procedure.

I found I was being being less than someone earlier this year with no rationale other than that the other person had negotiated harder earlier in their career.

I raised it with my manager who basically said yes, it is wrong but I can't do anything. I then raised it with HR (not via a grievance, just via an enquiry stating all the facts and why I believed it was inappropriate). They investigated for some time and concluded that my pay was below the market and I received a pay increase, outside the usual pay review cycle. I think 'below the market' was very careful and political but the outcome was right and I hope (importantly for me) some of the people involved will think a little more carefully about paying fairly in future.

If I hadn't been successful with this approach, my probable next step was to consult a lawyer.

Good luck.

There so many details to this that would need to be known.

I am one of these people who eaten more than my peers. The reason being, I negotiated more. When I entered the company and when got promoted. To be honest I don't see why others pay should go up because someone else got more.

They could be advertising more because they know that it's difficult to get someone in on the wage they are offering.

Have you ever negotiated? Did you just accept offered wage, for the promotion?

What if it just so happens it is always men who were paid more?

I’ve recently had a small promotion and we work on a graded pay system. It’s only 1 grade higher and I was on the top banding of the grade I moved out of so the pay increase isn’t a lot. If you change grades you automatically start on the bottom of the grade. I negotiated though and they agreed to start me on the middle grade banding. When I met with HR to sign my contract the HR man told me I was the first internal candidate to ever negotiate. If it had been 2 or 3 grades higher I wouldn’t have tried,

When you got your promotion did you negotiate your salary? Is it banded like mine?

It’s a little odd to leap in with a formal grievance if you’ve made no effort to address/query the situation slightly more informally with your manager first, tbh.

Deliberately not using legal definitions here, but what would be your reasons for being "unfair"?

I would expect someone just started doing the job to earn a little less than experienced colleagues just because of length of time doing the job. In a - starting salary is 30k, each year we get a 2% increase - kind of way.

Some differences will be accounted for by negotiation. Maybe you would have got 5k more if you'd asked, but they're not going to offer it up immediately.
Some differences will be accounted for in slight variances in experience, qualifications etc.
So there's going to be quite "fair" differences in salary between otherwise equal colleagues.

I'd go in with a request for a discussion first with boss / HR, requesting a pay rise based on you, your experience, justify you etc.

I think it is usual for people to do the same job for different salaries. It often depends on what you negotiate when you start. I don’t think an employer is obligated to pay you he same as someone else who has negotiated a higher salary.

Having said that I was recently in a position where I felt I was underpaid. I knew that I was less than other people at the same level as me. I mean close to £10k difference. I previously mentioned it to my manager and he fobbed me off, saying the same about people negotiating different salaries, but also that I was in line with other people. I had to take his word for it really although I had reason to think it wasn’t true (just passing comments people had made).

Anyway more recently I came to know what my firm offers newly qualifieds. It was about £3K less than I’m on with 7 years experience. As I had more concrete knowledge I put in a formal request for my salary to be reviewed. I sent it as an email to my manager, who sent it to his manager, and raised it in my 1-2-1.

I still knew they were under no obligation to give me a massive pay rise but I did think I had a good case for one as I’ve also performed well last financial year.

I got a 20% pay rise which took me up to my ideal figure (more than I thought I’d get) so it is worth an ask but you need to have the facts.