I started working for a nonprofit as a data analyst a few months ago and have mostly been enjoying the work. It's not necessarily what I was expecting, but the pay is nice, I enjoy working from home, and it's my first position out of grad school. It is a grant funded position, so it currently ends end of July, there's always possibility of extension, but I don't know when that discussion occurs.
On my team there are 4 positions, and the pay increases based on degrees and experience (according to the job descriptions). except for one.
- data analyst (66-72k, 1 year exp, bachelors)
- epidemiologist (70-80k, 2 years exp, masters)
- senior epidemiologist (82-94k, 5 years exp, PhD or MD)
- junior epidemiologist (77-99k, no exp posted, no degree posted)
Now the junior position doesn't have exp or degree in the posting (which no longer exists); however, the people on my team who were hired for that role are either fresh out of grad school (like myself) or still in grad school. I know there are some in the junior role making between 95-98k despite having a similar background as myself, but also less experience than the epi and senior position. The junior position has been replaced with an entry level epidemiologist position with a posted range of 60-65k, which is more realistic.
I met with the assistant HR director to hopefully find an answer as to why this discrepancy exists, but she didn't answer anything. she said:
- she can't discuss other employees pay with me. i never asked about other people's pay, and she said this a few times
- pay is based on many factors, including location. according to the job description for education and experience, yes. however, we all work for the same state and many, if not all, of my coworkers reside within the Midwest or neighboring states (no NYers/DCers on my team, which would mean a bit more money)
- I could have negotiated my pay. yes i could have, but i wasn't sweating over trying to get 72k vs 70k (my offer). nor would i have tried to negotiate for 95k because it's outside my range. i will definitely be negotiating for my future roles.
- it wasn't an error in the pay posted, but an error in the title. the hierarchy is supposed to go analyst > epi > jr. epi > sr. epi (according to HR), but she didn't answer what the title should have been if the pay posted was correct
As this is a grant funded position, they can't really do much in terms of raising pay for the other positions and they're on a hiring freeze at the moment; however, I felt as if she wasn't taking me seriously because I'm just an analyst and not in an epidemiologist role. like if the sr epi brought this to her, she might have cared a bit more because the sr has more experience/degree compared to the jr (for example)
I've already been browsing other positions to see what's out there and plan was to start applying a few months before the current end date of the position, but now I've moved that timeline up and thankfully have an interview for a more permanent role with more pay and better benefits.
I just needed to rant, I have kind of lost faith in this organization, and want to get out sooner rather than later. I've also spent time since Sept 2021 creating this whole (anonymous) pay transparency sheet for people in my field, just to end up being involved in this mess.