I started a job working as a stocker 6 months ago. I wake up around 3 am and get to work around 4 am; 5-6 days a week. when I was hired I was told I was getting the standard wage for the company at $19/hr. I worked extra hard cause my managers seemed nice, and I was hoping to get a raise if I worked hard. Today my coworkers casually told me that they all started at the same wage too, $20/hr. My manager who happened to walk in tried to play it off, but gave poor reasons justifying the wage disparity, and after some pushback said, “yeah, that's weird, you might want to talk to the store manager about that.”
I wouldn't mind them making more than me, but it's the fact that it's not a raise, but what they started with. Also, my managers can't say that my coworkers work harder than me, because I've been given more responsibilities recently than all of them, and I get paid less.
The coworker who told me got chewed out, rather aggressively, by the store manager for telling me this. And I heard another manager giving her a B.S. explanation about why talking about your wages with others is a bad thing that hurts her and helps lazy people succeed. It's not even about the money if I'll be honest, it's more about how they were so quick to get everybody to be quiet and manipulated her into believing she did something bad for talking about her wages.
I'm writing this because I thought that my managers were my friends. I thought they cared about me and wanted to help me out. Nah, that's all shit. When their bottom line was in danger of losing $1/hr more, I saw who they were.
Talk about your wages with coworkers, I've been screwed out of almost 1000 dollars in the 6 months I've worked here. Being quiet about these things only benefits the people whose job it is to maximize profits by paying you less.
Don't trust your managers. I'm not saying that all people who are in managerial roles are bad, but I thought I was friends with mine only to find out I was wrong. They care about your labor, not you.