Just as the title states, I was given a promotion at my work in January. Before the promotion happened, I was sent a text from the GM that reads “Effective Monday, January 9[th], you will officially be a team lead and your pay will be $19/hourly effective that day.”
I've come to find out, perhaps too late, that I've not received the raise despite taking on a world's worth of new responsibilities. I've had a “talk” (mentioned in passing twice and a disturbingly short sit-down today) with said GM. He told me that he “just can't do it” and when I brought up the aforementioned text he told me “You're right. I'll talk with you [in the next few days] about making up some of the difference on your next check…”
Needless to say, I'm pretty livid, but I'm mostly seeking advice on how to continue. I've done the calm talking, the asking around at other locations (it's a chain), and asked some of my coworkers in the Management Team how to continue. They've all told me that what's happened is illegal, but I don't feel like it is? All the same, I've starting looking into new employment elsewhere. I just need to know if I have some course of action to either get the money I'm “owed” or make them have to work a lot harder in my absence.
I did some research about what constitutes a legally binding contract and the language is (of course) very vague, but everyone I've talked to IRL is pretty convinced that I'm owed, at the very least, the difference between what I made and the new pay. I'm still not so sure.
What does the anti-work team think?
TL;DR: Supposed to get a raise with my promotion, I didn't, and now the boss is trying to weasel his way out of it.
Edit: I’m living in Tennessee. I realized after the fact that the laws are more often than not different in each state