This is part rant/ part seeking advice.
Going to be vague on some details for privacy's sake.
I work for a state agency in Texas, and in the department I work everyone has the same job duties. I've been with my agency for over six years, and in my current role over two years, a technical but non-supervisory role.
When I was promoted into my current role, I wasn't really aware that there was more than one job title in our department. I was told my title would be “X” and I had a set pay range. Normal for government employees, you don't really get to negotiate your pay. Because I was brand new to the role I understood that I would be starting at the bottom of the pay range for this role, but assumed that I could get raised to the upper range with time in service. (Never happened, no pay raise despite time in service and glowing work reviews.)
About a week ago HR announces two new open positions for our department, we had been understaffed for a while and I guess they got the approval to finally fill those spots. On the announcement it lists a job title different from mine, but has the exact same duties I have now, but it pays slightly more than what I get.
I asked our director for our division why are they advertising this different job title with more pay for the same duties I'm doing now. She wouldn't give me an answer, only responding that if I wanted a raise I had to apply for the new position.
I have applied for the new position, but I have a lot of questions which I'm having trouble getting answers to.
I found out that everyone in my department is already this new job title, they agreed that what's being advertised is what their duties are right now and have been for years. They don't know why I have a different title that pays less for the work we're all doing.
My direct supervisor claimed that this new title that they're hiring for was created after I was hired into my role and that's why it pays more. I feel that's a lie since everyone else in my department already has this job title and it's been around for years.
I feel like I've been cheated out of money, I'm being paid less than my peers for the exact same work, and now I have to basically apply for my own job to get paid the same as everyone else. I have reached out to our main HR at the home office to get some clarity but they have yet to respond.
So some of the questions I have are:
- Why are there different roles which pay differently for the exact same job duties? (The new open positions do not have any added duties/responsibilities from what I do now and are not supervisory)
- Do I possibly have any legal recourse? If the agency refuses to give me a reasonable explanation for these different roles/pay ranges which have the same duties. Due I possibly have any legal standing to say I should have been this other job title all along and paid at the higher rate retroactively?
- I'm worried that if they do agree to make me the new job title that they'll try to start me at the bottom of this new pay scale despite my experience. What can I do to force them to pay me at the higher range?
Any time someone gets a promotion of any form, there's always a division wide announcement about it and our director makes a big deal out if it if that person has a college degree. Like it's some massive badge of honor to be respected by all. I do not have a degree, and the job announcement clearly says that experience may be used in place of a degree for consideration of the position. But I'm still worried that they're going to hold that against me when it comes to discussing pay.
Any advice on how I should approach all this would be appreciated.
Thank you.