Got a promotion but they are bumping my pay 5K less than what everyone else in that position is making
I’ve been at this job for almost 2 years now and I feel like I’m on a constant battle trying to prove my worth. When I started with them I was referenced by my previous employer. However because they felt like I didn’t have junior level skills yet they gave me an entry level position. Which was fine bc I thought since I had 9 months of previous agency experience I’d be promoted in no time. Not the case at all. It took me over a year to get promoted even though I was doing junior level work by that time, they admitted they had dropped the ball on my promotion and gave me a bonus and raise to make up. All fine until they had onboarded 2 new junior level people a month later who had 0 agency experience and needed a lot of training. I was really upset about this and told my boss and supervisor that I felt like I wasn’t being valued and didn’t think it was fair I should be making the same as people who may be in the same position as me but have entry level skills. They agreed to a pay bump.
Due to people getting let go I was soon doing executive level work with Junior level pay. Since I felt like my previous promotion was delayed I expressed to them I was really hoping that this time around I wouldn’t be stuck waiting over a year for my next promotion. Well they finally promoted me yesterday and while I’m happy I was really disappointed when they told me I would be making 65K.
This is a problem because a few months ago a colleague was in a similar issues cause she found out that she was an account executive making 65K while everyone else in the same position was making 70K. And as far as I’m aware everyone that’s been an AE in the past makes 70K. When she spoke to them about why this is going on, they didn’t give her a reasoning but agreed to back pay her for the year. It doesn’t help their case that this colleague is POC and so am I. I was also really depending on that 70k I live in NYC and just existing is expensive here.
I don’t want to come off as ungrateful cause my boss has given me generous bonus’ throughout the almost 2 years I’ve been there but it’s hard not to feel a bit of resentment when you know your white colleagues are making more in the same position you’re in. They did say we could revisit my pay in 6 months but part of me wants to say something to them now.
For background I work at a small boutique PR agency so we don’t have an HR department I can talk to about this.