Hey everyone. I need some advice for a situation at work. First, a little context. I started as a temp worker for $16.50 for about three weeks, then got a permanent role at $15.45 which is min wage here. Their argument for the pay cut was “you'll eventually make more as a permanent employee with the pay cut than what you would have made as a temp employee with the higher pay.” I thought the argument was flawed but I took the job anyway for the convenience of location and flexible scheduling.
It's been about 4 months and it's coming about time to hire temps again. I obviously knew this was coming but it just feels ridiculous to be doing everything the temps are doing and more, but getting paid less. I'm not sure how to approach this because on one hand I feel like I haven't been working long enough to ask for a raise. But on the other hand the situation in general feels silly.
We have a total of like 6 permanent employees and the company can afford to hire 10-15 temps all for $16.50 but you can't afford to pay your regular employees that much?
Anyway I was thinking about asking to be paid as much as the temps at least while we have them and then going back to my regular pay when they leave but I'm not sure if that's unrealistic. Should I just ask for a raise even though I haven't been here very long? Should I just not ask at all? Any advice welcome.