Being paid less than my team member who reports to me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't take too much advice from DCUM. You know your situation better than we do.

I'm going to guess you're in a large organization with an HR department. This gets back to previous discussions about having to provide current compensation information when applying for a new job. Lazy HR departments use current compensation to determine what they will pay new hires. So someone who was already well-paid does even better, and someone who was underpaid continues to be so. That guy probably got a good salary somewhere along the way and it just kept going.

HR departments at large companies often limit what salary increases are allowed, even when someone is promoted or takes a new position. I've seen it happen, and at one of my last employers, the only way to get paid fairly was to leave and go work for a competitor for a while, then my company would hire them back after a year or two at a big salary jump. They'd never avoid this by giving out an appropriate salary in the first place. It was ridiculous. It's one way that women often end up earning less than men for similar work, simply because they started out with less in the first place and it just continues on.

I totally get why you are angry, and wish you luck on rectifying the situation.

Thank you for your thoughtful response. Yes I am at a Fortune 500 company with a large HR department. I think there are a couple of things at play here:
- I dont think they looked at the team members comp but just gave me the lowest increase they thought they could get away with (so not deliberate or at least i dont think so)
- We do have a large and lazy HR dept who does want to lower costs overall especially at my department
- Even though my comp is lower than his it is a relative big increase for me. His overall increase from his 2016 comp is also negligible which is another matter .
- And yes my husband is a high earner which my boss knows

So annoyed!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I would start with meeting with your boss to ask about this discrepancy. Is it possible that your boss doesn't know about the difference in salary? I think you just need to be very matter of fact about it - you have the same background, experience, expertise, etc. - and now you are taking on even more responsibility and expect to be compensated accordingly.

I agree. Leave emotion at the door. He will tell you that since you are new to this position, they are starting you off at the base salary for that role, and will re-evaluate in 6 months. You send him an email after the meeting recapitulating what he said, to get it in writing. 6 months from now, if you don't obtain more than your direct report, you verbalize that this is discriminatory practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't take too much advice from DCUM. You know your situation better than we do.

I'm going to guess you're in a large organization with an HR department. This gets back to previous discussions about having to provide current compensation information when applying for a new job. Lazy HR departments use current compensation to determine what they will pay new hires. So someone who was already well-paid does even better, and someone who was underpaid continues to be so. That guy probably got a good salary somewhere along the way and it just kept going.

HR departments at large companies often limit what salary increases are allowed, even when someone is promoted or takes a new position. I've seen it happen, and at one of my last employers, the only way to get paid fairly was to leave and go work for a competitor for a while, then my company would hire them back after a year or two at a big salary jump. They'd never avoid this by giving out an appropriate salary in the first place. It was ridiculous. It's one way that women often end up earning less than men for similar work, simply because they started out with less in the first place and it just continues on.

I totally get why you are angry, and wish you luck on rectifying the situation.

Thank you for your thoughtful response. Yes I am at a Fortune 500 company with a large HR department. I think there are a couple of things at play here:
- I dont think they looked at the team members comp but just gave me the lowest increase they thought they could get away with (so not deliberate or at least i dont think so)
- We do have a large and lazy HR dept who does want to lower costs overall especially at my department
- Even though my comp is lower than his it is a relative big increase for me. His overall increase from his 2016 comp is also negligible which is another matter .
- And yes my husband is a high earner which my boss knows

So annoyed!!!

How would your boss know that? My boss barely knows if I have a spouse...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:His role and mine are both technical. He covers one aspect of the area that i have overall responsibility for. I am very proficient in the area he covers and am more qualified (both on paper and in real life) and am a high performer in this company.

I am also pretty sure that my predecessor was not paid less than he was but i dont know that comp but i do know his.

I hope you stick up for yourself. Happened to me and I was so thrilled by the promotion that I didn't say anything. Years later I regret.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:His role and mine are both technical. He covers one aspect of the area that i have overall responsibility for. I am very proficient in the area he covers and am more qualified (both on paper and in real life) and am a high performer in this company.

I am also pretty sure that my predecessor was not paid less than he was but i dont know that comp but i do know his.

I hope you stick up for yourself. Happened to me and I was so thrilled by the promotion that I didn't say anything. Years later I regret.

+1000

And you should email him so that this is documented. From a legal standpoint

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:His role and mine are both technical. He covers one aspect of the area that i have overall responsibility for. I am very proficient in the area he covers and am more qualified (both on paper and in real life) and am a high performer in this company.

I am also pretty sure that my predecessor was not paid less than he was but i dont know that comp but i do know his.

I hope you stick up for yourself. Happened to me and I was so thrilled by the promotion that I didn't say anything. Years later I regret.

PP would you mind letting me know why you didnt speak up. I must admit I am quite nervous about writing this email - I have never done this before and I guess part of me feels scared about repercussions. I dont want to lose my job over this but also feel quite strongly about this. I dont know how far i will take this truth be told. I just want to sabre rattle enough to make them change my comp. if they call my bluff im stuffed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:His role and mine are both technical. He covers one aspect of the area that i have overall responsibility for. I am very proficient in the area he covers and am more qualified (both on paper and in real life) and am a high performer in this company.

I am also pretty sure that my predecessor was not paid less than he was but i dont know that comp but i do know his.

I hope you stick up for yourself. Happened to me and I was so thrilled by the promotion that I didn't say anything. Years later I regret.

+1000

And you should email him so that this is documented. From a legal standpoint

Talk to a lawyer first. There are time limits for filing a discrimination claim, and you may not want to create a paper trail just yet.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't demand to know why. Rather use this as an opportunity to further negotiate your new position. Might want to read up on how to negotiate successfully - dcumer could recommend books on this. Sounds like you did not do so when you were promoted.

[Anonymous]

I am currently on the other side of this. My manager makes less than me. Significantly less. She told me that -- and told me not to expect a a raise because of that. Her boss overruled it (she does not know it yet), and (from what I am told) got a lecture about peoples value to the organization.

You see, I have no desire to manage people; I did it for a while and found that A) I was not particularly good at that, and B) it kept me from doing the things I am good at.

In the past year, I have directly brought in $5.5 million in work, and indirectly helped on another $35 mil.

My manager, is younger than me and less educated, and thinks the salary structure should follow a hierarchy.

[Anonymous]

I'd guess it's a combination of compression, pay bands, and previous salaries.

I was in a hiring manager position at a large state u and our HR regs were stupid & outdated. We could only base salary offers on current salary, and raises could only be x%.

So, in practice, I hired 2 people for the same position at the same time.

Person A had just finished a top grad program, had many years of quality experience at excellent orgs, but was not employed when hired (so, making $0).
Person B only had a BA and did not have previous related experience, but was employed elsewhere making $xx,xxx.

Even though Person A was more qualified, I could not offer one dollar more than the minimum of the range.
Person B I had to offer $xx,xxx + 10%.

This meant the less-qualified person came in at about $5k more than the more highly-qualified person.

It was ridiculous, and their HR policies were a contributing factor in my decision to resign.

[Anonymous]

What would you do if they don't adjust your salary to match his? Resign? Accept it and be OK with it?

I think you need to decide this first before sending the email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before you send that email you might want to see if he has more education or experience than you. Just because he reports to you doesn't mean that you are more qualified - could be that he turned down the Lead position that you accepted

what a joke!! she's the lead and should be paid accordingly -- more than her reports. If they made a mistake and overpaid him, that's their problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would you do if they don't adjust your salary to match his? Resign? Accept it and be OK with it?

I think you need to decide this first before sending the email.

I like my job so realistically the only avenue i have is to try andl escalate with HR and legal within the company. I will not resign and will not sue the company either - unless they try and fire me over this. Then of course i will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I would start with meeting with your boss to ask about this discrepancy. Is it possible that your boss doesn't know about the difference in salary? I think you just need to be very matter of fact about it - you have the same background, experience, expertise, etc. - and now you are taking on even more responsibility and expect to be compensated accordingly.

Thank you. I am planning to write this email - grateful for comments

Hi abc
I was somewhat surprised to note that xyz's comp package is higher than mine for 2017. [insert details of the comp difference]. Given my background, experience and increased responsibilities, I presume that this was a inadvertent error and can be resolved fairly easily upon review.

If not please let me know who I should speak to in order to resolve this.

I'm not the pp but I think I would broach this subject in person rather than email. Tone doesn't always come across properly in email.

I agree.

I think you should keep this about skills and experience, not about making more than someone reporting to you.

[Anonymous]

Meet in person instead of sending an email. In the meeting explain why you feel you deserve a higher salary. Rule number 1 of salary negotiations is not to compare yourself to someone else because that gets you nowhere (essentially you sound petulant).