Hello antiwork, I apologize if this isn't the right sub for this question, but I figured you guys would give some good advice for me. Recently, I've been chatting with my coworker about our salaries. We were pretty open about it, because we want to be as transparent as possible so we can get the best salary we can if any negotiations were to arise. Here are the details:
-I work in a major metropolitan area in the US
-I am a male earning ~$86,000 per year. I have been in this particular industry for 7 years professionally and almost 4 at this company, a year in current role. No master's degree.
-Coworker is a female earning ~$90,000 per year. She has been with the company for 2.5 years and that is pretty much all her professional experience. She has a master's degree.
We are both the same “level”, so we fall within the same salary range. The company however is not transparent and doesn't provide an exact range of salaries. So my question is, is this something I should bring up to my leadership? My company is big on pay equity, and I am curious how much weight a master's degree has in our department over years of industry experience. I know $4,000 per year isn't a ton of money, but I want transparency. If they told me she earns more because of her master's, I would accept that answer and be satisfied. How should I approach bringing this up to my leadership, if at all?