A colleague of mine earns about 10% more than the rest of our team and myself, although we all do the same work and have the same qualifications. When I found out, I brought it up in an informal team chat with our direct line manager (who to be fair has no influence on our salary) and the response was “she must have negotiated better”. (We both negotiated – when I started, the salary of the rest of the team got increased to the amount I had demanded, but when my colleague started half a year later, no adjustment was made to the salary of the rest of us.)
Now both her and I are up for a promotion and I have a feeling we will get a percentage increase on our salary, so I would continue to be underpaid for the same work compared to her.
What can I say and how do I best bring up the topic to my managers to ensure that I will get equal pay?