Leaving job - found out underpaid, any right to back pay in final salary payment??

[peonyflower]

I'm leaving my current job and was told by my boss that I was being paid a significantly lower salary than my colleagues - 30%ish!!. This would have been remedied if I was going to stay, he said.

I imagine that there is not a lot I can do about this but wondered if there was any point asking for the shortfall.

Leaving on good terms as I may want to go back but did work extremely hard for this firm on very low wages with average of 10 hours overtime each and every week for career reasons!!

Any advice appreciated but understand that I could and should have asked for a raise quite some time ago if I had known about others pay.

It's wrong of your boss to fail to put this right now it has been noticed.

I am not a lawyer or HR person, but it seems to me that if one of these colleagues on a higher wage was male, it would be relatively easy for you to take a sex discrimination case to a tribunal. You have to do this within 3 months of leaving. One option might be to give your boss the choice of paying a lump sum now before you depart, to put things right, or letting you have your day in court, so to speak.

Why work for people who treat you so badly? they're practically stealing from your pocket by underpaying you by 30%.

Thanks Boffin Mum.

the strange thing is that I have been working in a law firm - always the worst!!

Then in that case hopefully boss will realise the gravity of the situation.

NB: He wouldn't have told you if he didn't expect to negotiate. He is clearly using it as a bargaining chip to get you to go back, but knowledge is power, and they have basically broken the law here, so you too have a good bargaining chip.

Kick ass, baby!

Peonyflower is one of these colleagues doing the same/equivalent job male?

You could bring an equal pay claim, or could threaten to do so. You would need to put a grievance in writing, which you can do even though you are leaving, stating that you are aware that you have been paid 30% less than x person for the same job for however long, which is illegal under the Equal Pay Act 1970, and that you are requesting back pay to cover the difference. Or something like that.

DOes it work out to a very significant amount? Would you be prepared to actually bring a case to a tribunal if they don't give a favourable response?

no, no male colleagues doing the same job as me in my department. Boss says that reason for my low pay is that I moved from another dept mid way in the annual budget and she didn't know [oh yea]that my pay was so much lower than others.

I will approach this amicably tomorrow at work as HR are sorting out final pay. May drop the topic of discrimination and equal pay though?

Bugger, where are all the men when you need them? If you're lacking a bloke to compare things against, then an assertive but amicable negotiation might move things forward for you.

It's a bit odd that departments in the same firm have such disparate pay rates. Do the partners know this?

Not much point talking about discrimination if it's all women tbh. At most you'd be talking about a goodwill payment reflecting your contribution, but if there's no male comparator there's nothing compelling them to pay the same to all unless you think there's some other kind of discrimination - race, religion or similar.

worked part time and wondered if there might be some discrim on these grounds? ie. against part timers.

I will try and negotiate some back pay I think because can't really go down the tribunal route as will never work for miles round here again...

useful words to drop in negotiations though 'equal pay' and 'feeling' of discrimination?

I would try avoiding the 'D' word at this stage because it might make you look a bit radical.

How about just making it look as though you might bend the ear of a senior partner in relation to this?

If you are getting nowhere with a tacit threat along these lines, then there may be a little mileage in muttering something like inadvertent or indirect discrimination against p/t people, because it does disproportionally affect women when this happens, and that's well documented.

No bloke I know would put up with this, by the way.

Valuable lesson learnt here though. Too English and reserved to ask colleagues how much they are being paid but in future will make endeavours to find out. Easier said than done I know.

Ask and ye shall receive ... that's how blokes do it, I'm told.

Fabulous!