Created a throwaway to make this post because I’m very frustrated. I will try not to make this story too long, but trying to gauge if my anger is warranted and what I should do.
For some background: I am working at my first job out of college (I have had internships and prior work experience in my field, but this is my first full-time job) and I have been working at this company for just over a year and was promoted recently from associate to analyst. This is where everything starts to go downhill.
So a couple weeks ago my coworkers and I started talking about our salaries because our company had been bread-crumbing us for months with company wide raises because we were recently acquired by a larger company backed by a private equity firm. This had been a long time coming because our company, self-admittedly by our bosses, hr and pretty much everyone, is well below the hiring belt in our area for our industry (leading to us being understaffed and I have been overcapacity my entire time while working here – with no complaints might I add). So I found out that my coworkers with less experience were hired at a higher salary than me (mine being 40,000 and theirs being 43,000) – I was a little upset because I have been working on higher level accounts for a longer time, but I didn’t negotiate so that was on me and I knew I was getting promoted to analyst and the situation would be hopefully rectified then and with my new knowledge I was prepared to negotiate. Fast forward to last week our manager sends out an email saying they are going to be setting up meetings with everyone individually to discuss salary structure change, exciting stuff! Not. My meeting goes well, my boss and I have my review in which he tells me “I’m one of his strongest employees, I have no area of improvements, etc” then I’m told I was promoted to analyst and the pay band for that position is now 50 – 59k and I would be offered 50,000. This is where everything gets sticky because at this point it did not feel like a negotiation, rather I was being told so I say something along the lines of “thank you so much for this opportunity but I was wondering if there would be any room for negotiation as I feel I am an extremely hard working employee and I fear that I will constantly be chasing other employees hired after me with less experience because they were hired at a higher starting salary” after saying this he completely dismisses me and says “well if people have more experience than you then they will be hired at a higher rate” which I obviously understand but that was not what I was talking about, and with a turnover rate of the likes of Amazon maybe they should be more concerned with their current, proven employees happiness. So I asked for 53,000 and he said he would get back to me. The next day comes along and one of my work friend has her meeting (mind you she is the position below me and has significantly less experience than me) and she was offered the same exact amount of money because her starting salary was higher than mine and they did increases solely based on percentages. Now I’m FUMING because this was the exact thing I was worried about, constantly chasing people with less experience than me (and don’t get me wrong I want my friend to make 50,000 because she totally deserves it but I would just also like more money being the position above her because what motivates me to do more if we are being compensated the same, the love of my job? Yeah right). So I call HR very upset & have more back and forth where I essentially tell them hey I know you’re paying the position below me the same amount and when they get promoted to analyst I’m going to be behind them again (just to note I found out other associates salaries too and they were all at or just below mine so my bosses wouldn’t know it was her) (also oh yeah my company does yearly reevaluations). I confront my manager and I told him “honestly I feel very undervalued and quite frankly a little disrespected” which I never stand up for myself and oh it felt so good but maybe not the most professional move but oh well. To which he replied “no I value you so much” and basically blew smoke up my ass which is fine but words only get you so far. The next day my hr rep messages me and has the audacity to say two things that really stuck out to me.
1) “Thank you for bringing to my attention your concern of your updated compensation of $50k, a salary increase of $10k.” Which first annoyed me because everyone admitted that we WELL were under the average for the area and our industry to the raise was necessary and completely dismisses the root of my issue.
2) “As a reminder on a professional level, we ask that salary discussions be held in confidence between your manager and HR.” And this is the part that really upset me because they would’ve been content with me being undercut and are scolding me for having conversations that I am rightful allowed to have?!
So they asked me to justify why I am worth 53,000 and so I said actually I think I’m worth closer to 57,000 (the actual average for my position based on location) and listed all of the things that I have done for this company but honestly I’m just so sour at this point and I have another meeting about it tomorrow and I’m honestly at my whits end and a little nervous at what is going to occur.