I was offered less money than advertised

[ChimneySweepLiverpool]

Hi everyone,

I work with children and I'm used to low pay. I am looking to move to charity sector. I knew this meant a possible pay drop. I am a manger in my job, educated to degree level and have 13 years experience.

I did an interview with a panel two weeks ago and it went very well. Yesterday they offered less salary than advertised - they claim I could work my way up with and pay will increase every year.

I'm disappointed as I'm overqualified for and was hoping to negotiate from the advertised amout offer so I'm surprised to be offered less. I'm very tempted to just reply saying 'I won't be taking this job due to being offered less than what was advertised'.

Any advice? 😞

Did they give a pay range or an actual salary?

Know your worth. If you would still be expected to do the same job, you should be paid the advertised salary

The charity sector is infamous for paying peanuts.

You can tell them this and that you would expect to be offered the advertised salary as a minimum, and to receive pay increases in line for experience and achieving agreed targets.

Go back to them with your salary expectations . You’ve been offered the job, so now it’s negotiation time.

Have they given you more of an explanation as to why they are offering less? I would be very cautious. What else about the job may change if this can?

Of course though you can go back to them and say you would be delighted to accept but only at x salary. The question is do you know much about them as employers?

This is where you negotiate, and hold to it. If you don’t really want to move to this job or are happy to wait for another then turn it down and tell them why.

Please don't accept less than they advertised at. As PP said, go back and say you only accept if paid the salary that was stated on the job advert. Also don't take their word for it if they say they will pay you this lower amount for X time and then increase as they might find excuses not too later down the line.

If they are not willing to pay that look for something else. Would be their loss by the sounds of it!

I wouldn’t turn it down at this stage but as a pp suggested I would say that you’d expected to be offered the advertised salary as a minimum,
but I’d be pretty peeved and it would make me worry about working for them. How annoying to advertise a job at a salary then offer below that, if they stick to it then that’s a real waste of everyone’s time

No.
Tell them it's the full advertised salary or nothing.
It's demeaning to be taken on at a lower rate. No decent employer would want to humiliate staff before they even start work.

The advertised salary was £x, I am very excited about the job but am afraid I could not come to you for less.

Don't say anything else, put the ball back in their court.

It's exactly what a man would do.

I need to negotiate hours but they know this. I can't do the hours wanted but they advertised they had flexibility for hours so I didn't feel I could also negotiate pay

They didn't advertise a range, they simply advertised a salary which was low but acceptable if they gave me the hours I wanted

Whenever I am offered a salary, I reply, "Is this negotiable?"
It almost always is.

Right so are you saying that the salary was advertised as £x but you thought that would work for you if you did reduced hours but for that salary? Is what they are offering now a fair proportion of that salary as in if you are working 80pc is the salary offered now 80pc? In which case not sure there's much to negotiate?

I would say that with my level of experience I was hoping for a salary offer more in the region of (insert more than minimum in advert). I’m still very interested in the role and think I would be a great fit for your organisation, but I would need a higher salary offer for that to happen. I look forward to hearing from you and hope we can find a way forward.

You can always negotiate pay. I just moved jobs and got £7k more than advertised. Your strongest point of negotiation is before you start. Any yearly pay increases will be a drop in the ocean compared to what you can get at this point. Do not sell yourself short!

I assume she’s meaning hourly rate. I hate this but it’s very common where part timers earn a lower hourly rate than full time despite fulfilling the same work just in different hours.

I wouldn't be doing reduced hours - same hours but 8-4 rather than 9-5 which I know others in that office currently do

Right so if you're working the full hours then you just say you want to be paid at the advertised salary!

usually in charities you can’t negotiate at all, especially in junior roles and if you do it’s maybe max £1k. Usually they won’t bend mainly because they have agreed levels of funding for specific roles.

Having said that they should not be offering less than the advertised salary

Yeah it does make me wonder what they're going to be like to work for but I'm trying to stay positive

Not acceptable to be honest, this would only be appropriate if it was acknowledged to be a big step up and you were perhaps looking at completing some training on the job or a qualification a view to increasing the salary once those objectives were met.

being over qualified to start means you absolutely should not be accepting less than advertised, unless it said circa £X?

Go back and say I am very excited about the role but my salary expectation is X, in line with the advertised role. If you’re feeling particularly brave you could ask “why have I been offered less than the advertised salary?”

put it this way OP, they have the budget to pay you, they are just trying it on. Not a good sign, unless they have the decency to be a bit shamefaced about the low ball then I would seriously consider not taking the role either way

It’s also super disrespectful isn’t it - it takes a lot of time and effort to go through a recruitment process. To do all of that prep work, research, interview stages etc - to then have them say “oh we don’t think you’re worth the amount we have in budget”…..

I feel quite mad on your behalf. Rude, disrespectful and unprofessional

Honestly don't take the job.

The worst employers I've come across are in thr charity sector.

What type of role is it? Like many sectors charities are struggling to recruit. 8-4 is totally reasonable (EXCEPT if you're manning a phone line or something like that). Go back and say your application was on the basis of the advertised salary.

Did they say you'd get an amount for working there full time and you want to work say 20% less than full time, but you still expect to get the full time rate?

Am I understanding that correctly?

Because if I am I'd suggest that you are the one being unreasonable. Sorry OP. Charity posts are never well paid. You can't expect to work fewer hours for the sane pay.

If that’s true then OP would not be deserving of the salary at all because that would be pretty stupid 😆
I don’t think that’s what’s going on here