I have been trying to find a definate answer to no avail. I got a job at a company doing a simpler version of what I did for years (wanted a little less stress), after about 6 months they moved me to work under a completely different department (now I am required to do the work I did before, after helping a few co-workers). However, they did not change my title or salary, even though my role is completely different. I have talked to my boss, and he says he agrees and will discuss it with his manager, but nothing ever happens. What would be the next course of action? The average salary for my role is about 85k, and I currently make about 35k. I am a younger female, and males at my company in my age group (with less or equivalent experience) seem to be making at least 20k more, and have titles/job descriptions that fit their role.
I saw some stuff for minimum wage issues, but not flat out underpaid.
There are no laws against being underpaid (presuming you are in the US). If a company wants to pay you janitor wages to do VP level work, they are welcome to do so and you are welcome to quit and find a better paying job.
However if you feel you are being discriminated against as a female, you should bring this up with HR. If they do not resolve things, you should file a discrimination complaint with the EEOC and see what happens.
There’s not going to be anything as simple as enforcing minimum wage for your position, since a certain variation between jobs and even between individuals with the same job is legal.
Talking to management is probably the most likely option to get you benefits soon and without a big fight, but I don’t know management over there. It doesn’t sound like they’re very cooperative so far. You’re probably already pointing out how your job has changed and showing how that compares to industry standards and/or other individuals in the company.
I don’t know your company well enough to know if there are procedures or people you can appeal to without going over your direct superior’s head and making everyone mad.
If it’s worth it to you, you might give an ultimatum of sorts - you’ll resign if they don’t bring your salary and title up to where it needs to be
To make a lawsuit out of it, you’d have to charge that it was discrimination based on some protected category, such as your gender. I’d consult with a lawyer about that if you’re willing to consider it.
IMO, it’s time to go over your superiors head. You need to go far enough up the chain to find someone with power to make a change. Depending on the culture at your company, you should be able to do this without making everyone mad.
In the end though, it’s as Baracus said. You’re free to move on, or to use that threat as a negotiating tool, but they don’t have to pay you more if they don’t want to.
FWIW, here’s what I would do. I would go to my boss and ask him whether he’d had a chance to talk to management. And then I would say something like “I really like it here, but I can’t get by on this, so if something doesn’t happen soon I’m going to have to start looking for other options”."
Not sure if this is still true, but it used to be that when you change jobs it’s hard to get a really big raise for a similar job. So if you are honest and tell them you make $35k they are not likely to give you $55k at your new place. Not sure why that is the case.
Of course you could claim you are now at $45k and ask for $55k but I believe most places will be able to find out your current salary (or try to) before they make you the offer.
Are you being discriminated against due to race, sex, age, or creed? In other words, is your company paying you less because you’re a young female in an office of older males?
IME, the only way to get a raise as large as this is to find another job. Unfortunately, if you can’t find another job, then you are not being underpaid.
Assuming you are in the US and your company has 15 or more employees, it is illegal to discriminate in employment based on sex, including in terms of pay. However, it is legal to discriminate at random and just underpay people, as long as you don’t go below minimum wage, or to pay recent hires less than established employees.
I think you should have another conversation with your manager. If he doesn’t address your concerns, I think it would be fair to him to let him know you see this as potentially sex discrimination. If that doesn’t get him to change his tune, then talk to HR if your company has HR. If they don’t have HR, go up one more level of the chain of management, then take it externally, to the EEOC and/or a lawyer. Document every conversation you have.
There’s nothing to be gained by telling them you can’t live on the money, or that you plan to look elsewhere. Whether you can or can’t live on it is irrelevant–it’s about fairness in compensation, and asking for a raise because you need money is usually doomed to fail. Look elsewhere if you want, but telling them about it is pointless.
If you are afraid that they will retaliate against you for complaining about sex discrimination, that is a possibility. However, it is often easier to win a complaint for retaliation than it is for the original discrimination.
If after looking into the situation more you feel you are underpaid, but it’s based on factors other than sex, you are in the position of trying to negotiate a raise. The approach there is to be able to demonstrate you could get more elsewhere. There are several books about negotiating pay, and you could pick one up and give their suggestions a try (example: Negotiating Your Salary: How To Make $1,000 A Minute by Jack Chapman, but there are others) . In this economy, though, it is probably tough. There is a natural pattern where companies give employees raises during the good times. In the bad times, may lay some folks off, but when they do hire they are flooded with applicants and don’t have to pay as much. They are unlikely to approach their current employees to cut their salary–it just doesn’t happen that way. So the remaining employees are the top performers who got raises and survived the layoffs.
FYI - unless you are 40 or older, you are not protected by federal age discrimination laws (ADEA). So, unless there is a state law that would protect you based on age, don’t bring up age as it will only confuse the issue. Federal age discrimination law is about protecting older workers, not preventing all discrimination based on age.
The OP doesn’t even state if there are other employee’s in that position making a lot more money at that company. What the other companies are willing to pay wouldn’t even be a basis for a discrimination suit. It would be nice to know if the complaint is because of making low wages compared to outside her company, or others actually in her position at her company are making that 85k. There have always been companies that don’t pay the industry average.
The question is what kind of salary they would have to pay the person they’d replace you with if you left?
If you left and they could get somebody else to do your job for $35K then you are not being underpaid, that’s just the going salary for that job.
If you left and the only way they could find a replacement to perform your same job duties was to pay them $85K then yes, you are being underpaid.
If you’re absolutely certain that to get a person to replace you would cost them $85K/year then your course of action, although risky, would be to give your 2 weeks notice with the explanation that you find the position to be underpaid.
They’ll either pay you the $85K (unlikely), offer you a raise (likely), or get rid of you and find someone else to do it for the $35K (unlikely if you’re 100% positive the job demands a higher salary).
I used to work in a remuneration consultancy in New Zealand. One of our major revenue streams was a service we called ‘market pricing’ whereby we provided a salary range for a given position in a given market.
These were achieved in a variety of ways, and I won’t go into those details here, but I would suggest telling your manager that you would like an independent valuation of the market value of your job. There is probably a compensation manager/analyst/consultant in your company’s HR division that can make this happen.
No company is going to give another company salary information on current or former employees. It is often considered proprietary, and there are probably privacy issues involved. Companies no longer even give out employee references - they sure are not going to give out salary information without permission.
She will no doubt be asked her current salary, but it is possible to refuse to give it, or give a desired salary (as long as she doesn’t lie about it.) It is risky, because some companies may decide not to hire someone who doesn’t give the information. It is also risky if the job does pay $35K.
Understood. I meant it as a polite way of saying “I want more bloody money.” The fact that you’re happy there is irrelevant too, but my inclination would be to say something like that to set the tone.
Even if the boss just hasn’t gotten around to talking to his superiors because it’s not a high priority for him?
I’m not really arguing–my experience is limited–but we may have understood the situation in the OP differently.
I worked for several companies in the US that used the “Hay Point” system. Every job was evaluated according to some sort of arcane analysis and given a particular “Hay Point” value (and target salary). Basically, that’s what your job was deemed to be worth in the marketplace.
Your actual salary had to be within 20 percent (plus or minus) of that target value. If you made more than the highest permissible salary you couldn’t get a raise no matter how well you performed (because your job just wasn’t worth any more than that). If you made less than the lowest permissible salary your salary was immediately adjusted up to the minimum.
Inside those min/max figures, your raise would be determined by both your performance review and your current salary position - if you made more than the target value, you’d get less of a raise than normal; if you made less than the target value, you got a better raise than normal.
I thought this was an excellent system when my salary was below the target value. Not so much when it was above it.
Yes. Really better left unsaid. There are quite a few positions where they will walk you out the door if you say you’re looking. In many more, they will stop considering you for any advancement or additional responsibility. If the OP does find another position to leave for, that’s another bargaining chip for her, but a threat to leave for unemployment in this economy doesn’t help her case any.
