Today is the last day I tolerate being underpaid.
I have worked at this tech company as an ecommerce associate for a year now
When I started, I was forced to settle from my original asking price of $17.50 to $16.50 because of a lack of direct experience (Pretty much just never used excel).
I went with it because it's fulltime (m-f) with weekends off (perfect for the budding musician!) And good benefits.
4 months in and the only other person in my department gets moved, leaving me to do all the work from September through the Holidays.
I'm talking gathering and pricing material (laptops, towers servers, random medical and lab equipment) photographing and listing it on eBay (in compliance with strict licensing regulations), maintaining inventory and areas around it, and finally shipping.
My department alone grosses an average of $12-20k a week, often beating out our main department, out-of-state, that is 4 times bigger.
In January, I caught a break and was thrown another employee who was “never supposed to be in my department” to begin with as he's more focused on customer service.
Despite this, I had to train him.
Well I come to find out he's making $18.
The next day, I inform my boss in person, that I feel I deserve a raise as I have worked hard for a year and clearly made a huge improvement on the mess that was our Ecommerce. I've clearly learned the skills I didn't have when I applied. I've gone out of my way to learn other skills from other departments in order to do mine more accurately. I've taken every ounce of critique and worked to make them non-issues. I'm on time and I miss work occasionally for health purposes, but not more than once or twice a month.
My boss seemed to take me seriously, until a month later I had to ask again as I still saw no raise. She said “it's in the works”. Another month later, nothing. So I go to her and kindly explain that I may be accepting another position at a job closer to my home that pays more; She responds that she's glad I took initiative and that it's up to her boss to decide on that, but that this will be a big push to get it done.
Her boss is in Texas btw and I've never even met him, so of course he can speak on my character and worthiness, right?
Flash forward two weeks and I'm still here with the same old $16.50 on my paystub.
No more.
Backup job or not, I'm spending my last day catching an easy 8 hours and never looking back.
I didn't understand this Sub at first.
I initially thought it was people complaining, but I get it now.
I understand completely now;
It's about basic human dignity, it's about living a better and more fulfilling life.
Proud of the work this sub has accomplished and glad to be a part of it.
That being said,
Any recommendations on material or wage information I can leave behind for the other employees?
I know for a fact that if they're underpaying me, they're underpaying the folks with green cards around me and I won't let that fly.