So another coworker asked me what I made today, then he let me know the 3 new hires we had trained over the past 2 weeks were all making more money than the rest of us who had been there anywhere from a couple months to a few years. Wanting to make sure it wasn't just someone inflating what they made he basically told me that one girl flat out told him unprompted, so he asked the manager standing right there and she confirmed that was the new base pay and that's what they were getting… We(group of workers being paid less) started talking and sharing info and basically had a common note of the hiring manager saying this pay was the limit and we can't move beyond it, then for some of them 2 months later new hires are making $3 more out of the gate. I know not a huge amount but pretty significant the shittier companies want to pay you, and increasing cost of everything. Besides making less money than new hires for the same job, I feel the ones of us who trained them should be given an increased pay for training shifts, as every job I've worked has hand selected trainers and given them either bonus pay, or some lame monthly dinner thing. Also not gonna lie sucks ass thinking I was training someone and they were making more than me just standing there.
So as far as approaching our manager we thought it would be best to get together and approach her as a group. Also I think it's best if one or two of just take the lead(doesn't have to be me), as a group of people talking at her might be a lot. But I think it's fair to mention the pay difference between the new hires and the established employees, and that we've had to train these people for less than they were making on a training shift. Also I don't think it's to much to ask that our pay get retroactively upped for the 2 weeks that we've been training the new hires and that they've been receiving that pay as well, since that seems to be the new “base pay” and we are under it.
Also I get that a corporation doesn't have to up your pay just because they upped the base pay while you were working there… but really that's fucking despicable especially when all expenses are currently skyrocketing.