Hey all, debated posting this here but I just need to get this off of my chest/allow myself to process just how badly I got taken advantage of in 2021. I also want to share it as a friendly reminder that it is not below even the “cool” office job employers to get away with a bargain at the expense of the worker
Some context: I previously worked at a “hip” ad agency just outside a major city in the Pacific Northwest. I have a BS in marketing from a private four-year college (read: expensive) and previous industry experience. I was hired to do organic social media at said “cool” agency, where we had a dog-friendly environment and enough office snacks/lunches to make us FEEL spoiled. The work was repetitive but it had enough perks to make it seem worth it on the surface. I was hired at just under $21/hr, which is already low (fun fact: so low in our state that it would be illegal to offer this rate as a yearly wage, which I didn’t learn until after my time there ended)
A position opened in the PPC department (think Google Search ads) and although my rate would temporarily decrease to $16/hr, I would get training in a rapidly growing field with much more long-term income potential. I was living with my partner and their family at the time, so I factored that into my decision to accept. In my meeting with HR it was verbally expressed but not written that I would be “brought up to my previous rate” once I passed a knowledge test.
6 months pass and I take the knowledge test, which I do not pass. I take the test at the same time as a male colleague undergoing the same department change. I later learn from my manager, who sat in on both tests, that I was hardballed the whole time while my colleague was not. I also later learned from this manger that the director who administered the test frequently discounted and derided her and other women in the company, so the difference in testing difficulties tracks (the director is later let go for some unrelated issues a few months later)
I am told the re-test will happen in another 2-3 months. COVID hits and the whole office goes remote, and 6 more months pass until I am given the re-test and pass. It has now been a full year since I accepted the department change “opportunity”. HR congratulates me with a raise back up… to $19/hr, a full $1 less than what I was hired at. I call bullshit in an email and HR tells me this new number is based on my newness to PPC. I ask what it will take to get back to $21/hr, and HR says I will need a promotion to a senior-level position. I begrudgingly accept but begin job hunting.
Another 6 months pass and we are now 1.5 years out from the time I accepted the offer to switch departments. My partner leaves his retail job as COVID rages because we live with immunocompromised people. During this time, by some miracle, we are approved for a mortgage and somehow manage to get a small house on the edge of the city so I can stop having a 1.5 hour commute one way to work every time I have to go in (I had done this commute for nearly 2 years at this point). I put down my yearly income as $45k, since I also had side gigs to help pay for our down-payment. Up to this point I was still commuting 1.5 hours a day, working 40-50hrs a week full time + two side gigs + eating ramen + living in a chaotic home situation and my mental health completely shits the bed. I also take only 4 vacation days during this time so I can cash in my mostly unused days once I get a new full time job, which I am applying for aggressively now (I get one, thankfully)
Doing my taxes this year I was shocked to learn that in 2021, I did not make $40k from my full time job. I made just under $30k, which I then was then, unsurprisingly, struggling to use to support my partner and I in a house. I am so upset at myself for being so severely taken advantage of by my work. That a company would lie to my face and then extend out a bargain basement wage like this. I am also horrified that a mortgage lender looked at my numbers and went on to APPROVE a mortgage for any amount with that income, well knowing it was to support two people in an expensive metro area. To say lenders not working in your best interest is an understatement. The same can also be said of employers.
TL;DR don’t fall for the “cool job” facade. Also if your superiors are nice to your face and get the office nice lunches, it still does not mean they are willing to pay you a fair rate or not be sexist/ otherwise discreetly discriminatory when it comes to pay and promotion decisions.