Aside from being most tenured at the company within the team, I have more experience in the industry / job role than all but one other person who has my same job function within my team, however they are also a new hire.
I was able to find this out easily as one of the new hires left the company in February, as our company made some changes to our responsibilities which they were not on board with. Perfect. We were friends, I trained and was a go to resource for them since they joined til the day they left. I hit them up and asked what they were paid, which they were happy to share. I was able to corroborate talking to another current co-worker in my same role whom I trust (trust in co-worker terms) that just moved into it from another position. Our bonus OTE was the same across everyone.
A little sidebar / history here – our company is going through a lot of restructuring within the team I'm on (and all others like it for other regions). Our team had someone more tenured than me retire end of 2021, everyone else who was tenured close to or more so than myself left the team to move into a different, non-customer facing, wholly operational role. Only I stayed on. I'm an account manager in a customer facing sales focused role. My direct manager is the only other remotely as experienced as I on the team – while less tenured than me at our company, they are more experienced in our line of work from prior jobs.
Through this time of change, my workload increases exponentially as myself and my direct manager are scrambling to train up the new hires / people who transferred into this role but still don't know most of the processes. I am praised constantly for pulling the team along, but as we all know, words only go so far.
Naturally I (professionally) confront my direct manager within our next 1:1 call. They seem a bit blindsided, and I don't know that it was an act as they have only been in that role ~3 months. They say they will speak to regional manager and see what they can do. But are otherwise mostly silent.
Fast-forward a week, I have a call with our regional manager. I get a whole ton of smoke blown up my ass about cost of hiring new people living in other cities vs where I live (all the new hires live across the country from me, really it's irrelevant as our jobs are 100% remote). Lots more (hollow) praise for carrying the team and helping train up the new hires.
They say they can see about increasing my bonus OTE for Q2, and look at increasing my base in H2. But stress that I need to be performing / hitting my numbers for the rest of Q1 and Q2. So basically telling me I'm worth less for doing the same job I'm far more experienced at and one of 2 people including our direct manager who knows all our internal processes and quirks inside and out simply because I live in a different geographical location. And that I need to hit my bonus goals in order to get a base salary raise. “Just hang on for a few months, I'll take care of you.” Yeah, sure – fuck you too, very much.
I've been casually taking interviews in the background this whole time. The more I take, the more I find roles with the same (or less!) responsibility than I carry now with a base salary pay range anywhere from 50-100% higher than what I'm making today. Some with bonus / commission plans 100%+ more than my current one.
I just received my first job offer, for a role that is a promotion over what I do at my current company. The offered base salary is 50% higher than my current role, and a capped bonus that's only 33% of what my current one is. The future is to build out a team under me to further develop this line of business and boost growth, so I like that aspect a lot. Not bad as I'll take base over bonus all day, but time to negotiate.
Asked for a 66% increase in base (vs. their 50%), and an extra week of vacation. They came back with the same 50% increase but a bonus that is uncapped – a straight 1% commission on all new sales for the entire company within the line of business I'd be managing. Note that this role is not a direct sales role. Working on finalizing this revised offer and a few other sketchy legal points. (They wanted full ownership over any inventions I develop while working there, regardless of whether developed on company time or not. Nope not giving that away. Also had a sketchy clause that I would be responsible for all legal costs they incur enforcing their rights based on this agreement – another big nope – it's essentially an uncapped SLAPP as they could raise baseless claims and even if they lose I would still be on the hook for their legal fees. No way in hell – I got that removed.)
Still working through other interviews for similarly more fantastic potential opportunities. Can't wait to tell current management I'm leaving and they're stuck with a team of newbies for which they are now the only one who can train them. I will be giving two weeks not only as a professional courtesy as I do respect my current manager but mainly because I would like to keep the door open for future opportunities – my company does tend to re-hire a lot of people who leave.
Know your worth. Don't take the first offer and negotiate. Read. Every. Word. in any offers. There are great opportunities out there. Don't be afraid to go find them!