This is for sure a long rant, oops.
Like the title mentions, I joined my workplace's HR team back in May after doing data entry for the recruitment team for a couple of years. I was hired at less than $20 an hour and after 2.5 years had barely gotten to that point. I was offered a $2/hr pay increase when I switched teams because it was more of a lateral move than a promotion, and I was happy with that.
However, now that I am in the HR team, I now have access to everyone's salary information and offer letters. So I'm seeing these people getting hired at $55,000 a year straight out of undergrad and…that would take more than a 20% pay increase for me to meet.
Background on me: It took me seven years for me to finish my Bachelor's degree because i had to work (sometimes more than) full time while in school to escape my living situation. I was financially abused and put into essentially an indentured servant situation with a family friend who said I could work at their daycare in exchange for housing and a paycheck (but the paychecks stopped coming shortly after being “hired”).
The reason that my company pays these people straight out of undergrad more than me is because they have more applicable experience through internships and training programs. But that just wasn't something accessible to me in my situation. So because I worked myself sick at restaurants and daycares instead, I'm stuck at this pay level? Like our annual salary increases are capped at 7%. It would take 3+ more years for me to make what someone else started at. And by then, they're probably going to be making more.
Make it make sense. I feel like I'm being punished for being poor and there's no way out.