I (32M) work with a woman (32F) that has a similar job as mine in the same department. She recently interviewed for a position at a different company. When they saw her credentials and experience, they invited her to apply for a Senior position instead, which she got! They are tripling her pay plus she gets some really cool benefits!
We have a good relationship, so before she left, I asked if I was underselling myself. Found out that even though she had been working in our department for over 6 years and was responsible for much of the design of our workflow, she was being paid $5k/yr less than I was – someone that was hired within the last 6 months.
Her immediate reaction was “Yup, because I'm a woman.” But that's completely untrue. I was hired due to a worker shortage during a period of heavy inflation. Adding to that – my boss is a woman. My bosses boss is a woman. The HR rep that interviewed me is a woman. And I work in the education industry, which is 76% female according to numerous sources. I don't believe that all of them would decide to pay me more because I'm a man.
The real problem is that our company is focused on getting new employees, but not willing to take care of the current staff. The bigger problem is that they consider a “cost of living adjustment” to be a raise. It's NOT a raise, it's a response to inflation. Raises need to be above and beyond the rate of inflation. And if you don't reward hard work, then why are we working hard?
So often, our first instinct is to attack each other. “Men are holding us back”, “an immigrant took my job”, “I have better credentials but they make more than me”. Media conglomerates support these lies because they divide us. But in reality, if I – a minority – make $20 and a white guy makes $25, the question isn't “why don't I make $25 too?”. The real question is, “Why are we making $20-25 when the company is making millions off our labor?”.
Stay focused on the real problem. Don't hold a grudge against people that are going through the same thing as you. We need to be united if we're going to force change.