I’m a new manager for a large team and my boss was reviewing the individual compensation information for raises/bonuses that I have to relay to each person.
I had a catch up meeting with one of my direct reports earlier in the day and she has been talking about comp for weeks. She mentioned how she knows new hires were getting starting salaries of $48k and she had been hired over 2 years ago and is currently making $42k. She said she expected that the company would at least match her with the new starting salary, but that she was really hoping and expected something in the range of $50k-55k.
I told her I understood her frustration because I had been in a similar boat when I found out my 2021 raise put me at the same as new hires with no experience. At the time of our conversation I didn’t know what type of comp she was getting, though.
In the conversation with my boss I mentioned what my report said about knowing what new hires make, talking to others, and being unhappy with the unfairness (I know life is unfair but I really see this as a true unfairness). She started going OFF about how inappropriate it was for her or anyone to discuss their salaries with each other. I was shocked because she’s a cool millennial (mid 30s) woman and I never would’ve expected her to act that way or have this mindset. She told me said colleague was getting bumped up to $44k which was an even bigger shock since I thought the company would actually give her $48k at least. What’s crazier is that if this employee had been hired within the last six months, she would in fact be making $48k.
I didn’t say anything and I should have, but it is 100% acceptable to discuss salary because you need to know your worth. What happened to the whole gender equality and wage gap situation? How would women have known they were making less money than men if they hadn’t talked about it? Why does that type of conversation make it ok to discuss salaries? I’m a female btw
Corporate America is BS when it comes to a lot, but especially with salaries and raises.
Icing on the cake is that the talking points document for comp review conversations says “(company name) does not award inflation or cost of living adjustments.”