TDLR at the end
So in our office, whenever someone’s celebrating their birthday, we collect fees from everyone except the celebrant to give them cake and card. The amount is based on everyone’s salary. Pro rata.
The one who’s responsible for this is the office admin, he knows all of our initial salaries.
Now, someone will celebrate their birthday soon, so he started telling us how much we should distribute. He told me mine and I said fine, I’ll give it tomorrow.
Tomorrow came and one of my colleagues was complaining about her share, she said it’s kinda high compared to last time. I told her that the admin said since there are more employees, we need to buy 2 cakes to accommodate everyone.
So she asked me how much am I contributing, when I told her she became silent, so I asked her how much was hers. At first she’s trying to give me a vague answer, then that’s when I knew it was only a dollar more compared to mine.
I was confused, I thought it’s based on our salary? This colleague is earning 3x more than me. And there are 11 more people whose earning more than her. I’m the lowest earner in the company.
Maybe the admin didn’t know our current salary since almost yearly we get raises. So there’s a benefit of the doubt. I figured I’ll just ask him and request for a calculation.
I came up to him, told him what I knew, what I requested and thought he’ll understand.
He became defensive and said something along the lines of
I gave you the minimum amount, there’s a minimum (there’s no minimum, it’s based on salary)
Then tell me how much do you want to share then?
If I decrease your amount then I need to increase the others’ share
I told him, if it’s based on the salary, of course that’s what’s gonna happen. He rolled his eyes and said he’ll check.
I’m just waiting now for his verdict, I’m just thinking what if he doesn’t change my share, do I drop it? Let it be? I admit the amount is high, equivalent to my transportation fee for 2 days but I have no problem giving that much you know? What’s bothering me is when I compare it to my colleagues and this is just change for them. The highest earner earns 12x more than mine. So I can’t shake the feeling it’s unfair.
TDLR: need to contribute fees, the amount is based on collective salaries, figured my colleague’s share is $1 more than mine, she earns 3x more.