First, a little backstory. For my first and only job to this point, I began working as a porter for a car dealership in October 2015 at the age of 19. My starting wage was $9.50/hr. When I first started, I worked in the service department, mainly taking customers home, keeping the service lot clean and organized, and doing other odd things as assigned. I was also at this time going to college, so I was considered a “part-time” employee. After working in service for two months, management decided to move me up to a sales porter; I would work with three others who do the same job. I thought this was cool moving up in the chain of things. By the way, the pay was not raised at this point. This would include cleaning new cars for delivery (sold cars), keeping the used and new car lots clean and organized, checking in car haulers with our new arriving inventory, and other odd things as assigned. For reference, these odd things usually included getting the manager's lunches, pulling weeds, or something really off the wall that I can't think of because it was just really out there. At this point, I am still taking college classes, so my employment is still considered “part-time.”
From when I started in 2015 until the winter semester in 2019, I always took classes but only one or two per semester. I was also working 30-40 hours, sometimes over 40. I was definitely overworking myself, now that I think back on it, because I wasn't doing well in any of my classes. Anyhow, throughout the years of employment, I was given raises, not at a steady rate, but it was something. I taught myself how to do some things and pretty much became the head guy of the group. For background, my pay rate started at $9.50; after a year and a half, I had to ask for a raise, and it went up to $10.50. Another year passes, and a manager who no longer works at our location notices I do an excellent job with lot-related stuff, so he promotes me to Lot Manager and raises me to $11/hr. This position promotion happened in mid-2019, so just before the pandemic. We get through the meat of that, and they raise me again to $12/hr when I return to work. Another year passed, and they increased another coworker and me to $13/hr.
In 2021, before my raise to $13, I showed interest in becoming the vehicle photographer as I've been working here for six years at the time. So, they set me up with the program so I could take pictures and post them, mind you, I do this without extra pay. While talking, I told him about all my equipment and such. So, he tells me, “Ok, let me talk it over with the other manager, we'll set a date to bring in your portfolio, and we'll talk.” Currently, to this day, we still haven't had that conversation. However, a couple of months later, they raise my pay to $13. By the way, after taking fresh inventory photos for a while and realizing they weren't going to promote me to that position, I stopped doing them. After waiting so long without an answer, I decided to do what was best for me. I decided to reenroll in college for the winter 2022 semester since I hadn't completed my degree and wanted to pursue a different path than what I was previously enrolled for. After I had registered, I asked them if I could move over to the position of driver, which included doing dealer trades and other various off-property runs, so that I could focus on my schooling better. This was met with multiple questions of the form, “Why?” Needless to say, they didn't move me over to a driver position. My opinion is that they were afraid and didn't want to lose me in this position as I knew how to do everything one-handed.
Anyways, fast forward to the present day in 2022, I am now 26, and I am still working at the same company, in the same location, in relatively the same position for seven years at the current of $13/hr. I am also back taking classes and only working a max of 25 hours. Over the years, I have witnessed roughly 12 people come and go through this porter position, not including the current crew of three others. I have gone from an entry-level position, porter, to having the title of Lot Manager (However, since this title was given to me by a previous manager who no longer works at our location, I'm not too sure it's formally recognized by current management as they always refer to me as a porter.) During this time, I had taken initiatives within my job to set myself up with the trucking companies to know when and how many cars were getting that day and then relay that to the sales staff if it was an ordered unit for them. I do manual inventory on a militarily accurate schedule every month. I taught myself one winter season how to operate the plow truck, plow the lot, and detach the plow. I also fill in and fob our keys in our security box when our regular person is on vacation.
It would seem like with all my experience, willingness to learn, and do extra tasks outside of my job description, my compensation would be either on par with the others or slightly higher. While I am at $13, my mates are making $15. I learned this through a conversation when driving back with one of them after dropping a car off at someone's house. This individual has had previous experience from a different dealer before they came here but admitted that they could never keep up with everything I do. Granted, I understand that currently, I am part-time, but I switch to full-time hours when I'm not in classes (i.e., summer/winter break). One of the current employees quit a couple of months ago after being there for only two months but decided to come back. I believe he's making more now than he previously did, which blows my mind. They also, in my opinion, mismanaged a situation with one of my coworkers that I won't go into.
While I enjoy what I do, the people, and the connections I have made while working here, my main reason for still staying employed here is my three weeks of paid vacation, and I'm not quite ready to give that up yet. Any outsider thoughts on this would be appreciated 🙂
Side note: One of the previous employees I am still good friends with told me that maybe they don't realize that I'm only at $13. He overheard some conversations about where they were raising the pay of someone else, so that's where the new $15/hr came from. So, it could just be just an honest managerial mistake, but I believe they might be trying to keep it secretive, so they only have to pay 3 out of 4 of us $15. Just to save a couple of extra bucks.