Furious about colleague's salary

[fightfirewithfiree]

I am this person's line manager and I just found out she earns more than me.

She does not have any special/ technical skills that I don't - her job role is what I used to do for 4 years before being promoted to management - and she's not even that good at it if I'm honest.

She has been in the organisation a year less than me.

I have been her manager for a year now. My boss is very hush-hush about salaries but I found out inadvertently her salary is £1000 per year more than mine (an administrator/ finance person showed me something she didn't realise I wasn't supposed to see).

I actually think it's ridiculous anyway that I'm her line manager and am not supposed to know her salary. Feel like leaving the organisation, feeling very devalued.

It's a really unpleasant thing to have to raise with my manager, I hate talking about money but if I'm managing someone surely I should earn more than them, I have far more resposibility for all kinds of things.

WWYD?

@Gumreduction yes, I’ve been a senior manager for several years and have also negotiated my own salary.

Interesting
Because to say “you have to put your foot down” when it comes to pay negotiations is not an approach I would ever recommend and if one my reports approached me with this stance, I would be…. Well, looking at them rather quizzically for a start

Women are less likely to negotiate and call out disparities in pay. Similar in interviews, men push for larger salaries, invariably the women I interview walk themselves back from asking for a salary bump and are apologetic for even asking.

Why didn’t you try to negotiate before job hunting? Clearly it was something they were very open to

@Gumreduction

We see this over and over. People ask for pay rises and/or better pay and conditions overall and are refused.

Only when they have secured another offer does the organisation swing into action snd produce a decent offer.

Without the counter offer, they have no way to judge how serious the complainant is. Many, many people complain that they are in devalued but don't get as far as taking any action. Why should we pay them more, until we know they really might leave ?

But in this scenario

the op - female
the boss - female
the colleague - female

@Gumreduction really, so if a member of your team said they were aware of. A pay disparity, despite having more experience, more time with the company and being more senior, you would ‘raise an eyebrow’. Glad you aren’t my manager!

But that isn’t what you said!! 😂

you said the op must “put her foot down”!

Women are less likely to negotiate and call out disparities in pay.

But there is nothing intrinsic about being a woman that stops us negotiating better pay. We should be encouraging each other to do the negotiation, to learn the skills and apply them in the right situation, not just crying unfair. P

so if a member of your team said they were aware of. A pay disparity, despite having more experience, more time with the company

versus

you * must put your foot down OP*

you see the teeny tiny difference?

Well presumably you have no say in people's pay so she has gone to the person who does, quite right as frankly it isn't any of your business. I get paid more than some of my colleagues, it's a job at the end of the day and you should always put yourself first, if they're bitter I negotiated more successfully but fairly then I'd think they were a bit pathetic.

You are missing the point of gender paygap. The fact that everyone is female doesn’t change the fact that women are less likely to be forceful about being paid fairly.

And in this scenario, a female did do this.

and indeed the boss is female

Agreed.

There is a gender pay gap.

i am female

my belief is that no one is to blame for this other than the specific females in question 🤷‍♀️

Exactly, I spend a lot of time coaching women not to be apologetic and not to settle. Know what you are worth and have confidence in making your case. If they don’t respond then be brave and leave.

Yes, because all of those things apply in her case.

So your advise to the op is “put your foot down”

My advice is… don’t adopt this approach op, it’s daft and short sighted. Ask to have a conversation with your boss and go in with an open mind. No “putting your foot down” here! 😂

Advice

Clearly it wouldn’t work with you, but maybe you might be part of the gender pay gap problem.

OP - I have put my foot down in the past, I left one particular job based on their response and I have also been successful many times. I have more than doubled my salary in 4 years because I know what I am worth and I’m not worried to say it.

Read your work thread about how profoundly unhappy you were with inflexibility of you employer.

you didn’t say once that you went in strong and put your foot down! instead you just said you were job hunting 🤷‍♀️

I don’t give a hoot about the gender pay gap

why? Because I have negotiated pay rises and I think I’m on a very reasonable salary for my position. I don’t give a hoot if anyone more senior on less than me or anyone junior than me on more than me.

I take as a much ownership of my career and pay as I feel comfortable with. Some will take more and get more, others will take less and get less.

Very unfair and you have my total sympathy. I am in this situation myself. I’m head of dept and one of my male employees is paid £100k more than me. He does less work has less responsibility and is less valuable to the organisation. I have complained and they have given me generous pay rises but these do not bridge the gap. He has been at the co a long time and was hired at a senior level 20 years ago on a very high salary because the biz was booming then. I am younger, but still very experienced now and worked my way up. The industry I’m in is now not doing so well and salaries have fallen across the board. I don’t want to leave as I love the job and like my colleague a lot too. I am highly paid too,
Even so, this situation is wrong. I’m interested what response you get because when I came on here for suggestions on what to do I got very little sympathy. It surprised me people seemed to think there was no grounds to complain when a female boss is being paid much less than a male on her team who was less senior.

I get finding another job and current employer then realises your value, but personally I’m just not wired that way.

Once I’m looking for a new job, then I’m mentally leaving.

If you are with a union I would take this to them.
this is incredibly unfair- perhaps your job needs reviewing?
It also sounds like there are more issues than the salary so maybe you need to look at all
these as well?

Could she be having a tryst with manager or somehow sucking up lots?

Just to echo an earlier comment -- are you sure that the financial data wasn't what we call "on costs" for the employees? In payroll and finance we include the cost of employer's National Insurance (13.8%) and employer's pension (minimum of 3%) when calculating staff costings.