I live in the U.K., where you don’t qualify for the living wage legally until you turn 23. It’s a joke. I get paid the minimum wage for an 18-20 year old, which is £6.81 an hour. My manager gets paid £9.80 an hour because she is over 23. We run a charity shop for a small business. I go above and beyond in my role as [insert job title] assistant because it’s what expected of me. In all ways except my title, I’m the assistant manager. My job description is exactly that of a retail assistant manager. I’m actually quite furious at this point. I had my contract renewal recently, where my boss handed me my contract with the job title of “[insert job title] assistant” I plucked up the courage to say that I think my title should be assistant manager. He started umming and ahing, so taken aback that I would even suggest that, and undermined me by saying that I don’t really do anything an assistant manager does. Which is utter bullshit. He asked me to outline some of my responsibilities which I believe are that of an assistant manager, I did, he said that he would make a mental note of that. Nothing’s come of it, not surprising. He’s just kept handing me things with [insert job title] assistant on it and never brought it up since. I’ve been drafting an email to him, further outlining my responsibilities and formally requesting that he changes my title. Do I even bother? We’re a small team at the shop, I can’t just stop doing all my responsibilities if he declines. Do I go above him? Do I just suck it up while I look for another job, because I’m currently rather unhappy in this job, but I do have amazing colleagues that keep me going.
Tidbit, my manager was off sick for a week, and he texted me thanking me for stepping up in her absence. I work more hours than her, I always step up in her absence.
I don’t know if anything can be done about my pay. I know it’s a common case of being undervalued and underpaid. The recognition side is really important to me. I’m still fairly new to the working world, and I know that life isn’t fair, but the age based minimum wage specifically is an injustice at the root of the Tory government.
If I don’t laugh, I’ll cry at the fact that if I quit and they hired someone 23+, or 21+ even, (I think the minimum wage for someone 21+ is like 9.20 an hour) they would get paid over £9 an hour for doing my job that I get paid £6.81 an hour for.