What If You Find Out Your Co-Workers Are Making More Money Than You
Posted by jefferson on Mar 12, 2012 in Career Advice | 35 comments
The conversation started innocently enough. Me and my buddies from work were driving home from lunch and talking about the local job market, and how it looked like companies were starting to hire once again. A friend who was sitting in the backseat with me mentioned that a previous employer had reached out to him to see if he was interested in returning. He said that he wasn’t interested in going back, but told the rest of us that the job had decent pay, and he threw out a number.
The number he threw out was a good ten grand more than I was currently making, so my jaw dropped a little bit upon hearing this. I wasn’t especially interested in leaving my job to go to this company, as they were retail-driven and had a reputation for regular layoffs, but the realization that folks were getting paid that much to do a job very similar to mine was startling. I exclaimed, “Wow, that is a huge number! That is a lot more than I am making.”
As soon as I said this, I couldn’t help but notice that my two friends in the front seat cast a quick look to one another. They didn’t say a word, but I knew right away what that look meant. Every company in the world strongly discourages their employees from discussing salary. Some companies even mention in their employee handbook that this is grounds for termination. It is easy to see why companies take this stance, as it is only going to lead to somebody getting upset if everyone knows how much everyone else is making.
I have the kind of friendship with my co-workers where we are free to call each other out at any time. When I saw their silent glance, I immediately spoke up. ”Uh.. guys, I saw that look. I assume that means that this number is not as shocking to you?” They again looked at each other, apparently trying to decide exactly what they wanted to reveal, so as to minimize the damage. After a few seconds, one of them just said “Let’s just say that.. you should probably take a look at glassdoor.com. Wanting to avoid further awkwardness, we agreed to end the conversation there.
I hadn’t heard of the site before, but I quickly learned that glassdoor is one little jewel of a site. If you list your employer and job title, they will give you the min, max, and average salaries for that position. If you work for a large employer like me, you will be able to quickly determine how you compare to your peers. After the earlier conversation, I wasn’t surprised to learn that I was on the bottom of the range for my job title. The average amount that my company was paying folks to do the same job as me was ten to fifteen thousand more than what I was making!
My first reaction to this news was shock. This was followed by anger, frustration, and a strong desire to quit. I had been a great employee for this company and had received many accolades for my hard work. While my teammates were all good employees and fairly hard workers, I was confident that the work that I was doing was just as good (if not better). I had been perfectly happy with my salary before that day, but now I was pissed! No wonder companies try to keep this type of information secret 
At this point, there was no going back.
I didn’t want to leave my job, but it isn’t in my personality to just sit around and be angry about something like this. That being the case, I immediately went to work. I started building a detailed case of why I deserved to be paid like I was one of the top performers on the team. I carefully outlined how my work compared with my peers, including information like:
- The amount of projects that I ran, compared with my teammates.
- The critical nature of the projects that I was assigned to.
- The fact that other folks on my team, and on other teams, always come to me for assistance when there are issues.
- The fact that I am the Subject Matter Expert on more technologies than anyone else on the team.
After putting together my list and supporting details, I scheduled a meeting with my manager to discuss it. I didn’t want the content of the meeting to completely catch him off guard, so I named the meeting “Jefferson’s Career Path.” My boss ended up rescheduling the meeting into a lunch conversation, which made me nervous, but ended up well. He carefully listened to my points and agreed with everything that I said. In our meeting, of course, I didn’t mention the conversation with my co-workers in my car, but instead pointed to glassdoor.com as to what clued me in. We concluded the meeting with my boss stating that he would do all that he could during the upcoming calibrations to get my salary adjusted to an appropriate level.
If you are curious to find out if you are being underpaid by your current employer, I encourage you to look into it and follow a similar path. It would be incredibly tacky to start a conversation of this kind with your co-workers, but nothing is stopping you from looking at the web resources that are freely available. If you *do* find out that your co-workers are making more than you, then don’t be afraid to build a case and to ask for the situation to be corrected. You deserve it!
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I’m definitely underpaid because I’m still an intern – I make almost $10/hr less than somebody in my position normally. It’s good that you did that!
I don’t even make $10/hr
You definitely did the right thing by approaching your boss with all of the backup information.
The way I look at it is, the worst that can happen is they can say no. But if you never bring it up with your boss, then you might not get that raise you are looking for!
Just to provide a follow up.. I didn’t include this in the post because I wanted to keep the word count down..
A couple of months after this discussion with my boss, I *did* get a nice raise, to bring my salary more in line with the averages for my position. So this effort was certainly worth my while.
That’s awesome!! I was about to leave a comment demanding a conclusion to this story
It’s still unfortunate you have to fight to get the average salary… I guess someone has to be the low end but still it’s a pretty nasty thing to do to someone…
I work for a government agency so if someone knows you’re paygrade, he can look it up. If someone even knows your title, he can look it up. I have a co-worker who is very resentful of me because I am a higher paygrade than he is, and it definitely affects our relationship. He thinks I am undeserving of my job and my pay and that he should have my job (sorry, buddy. You should have applied!)
I think that knowing a co-worker’s salary can definitely cause some tension. But, as you point you, you can also use it as motivation to increase your own salary.
It is a wonderful thing that you spoke to your boss! I’m glad that worked out!
I will say (and you mentioned this) that employees should never talk about how much they make. The conversation just isn’t going to lead to anything productive.
For your situation it did, but most people are too scared to sit down with their boss and discuss/ask for more money. All those types of conversations lead to frustration, anger, and resentment.
That’s exactly what employers ban employees from talking about it.
Unfortunately, only people with unions with pay scales are assured of pay equality, and even then you never really know. I think it’s important to keep track of your job / salary matchup on sites like you mentioned. I should probably give another look here pretty soon, it’s been awhile!
You mean, pay conformity. Not pay equality.
I am not sure that everyone is necessarily worthy of pay equality. I understand that both experience, and quality of work, should factor into your salary. Just because two people are doing the same job, doesn’t absolutely mean that they should be paid the same.
My main issue with the situation described above, was that I was every bit the equal of my co-workers who were making so much more than me, and in fact– in many ways, I was the more valuable employee. When you sit next to someone every day, you can see how much work they do. Every team is going to have their studs and their coasters, and if you are going to be a stud.. you should get paid like one
That was an excellent plan of attack. Also, it’s great that you didn’t disclose that your friends enlightened you, but instead used the glassdoor.com as your source. The important thing is that you confronted your manager about your concern in a professional and calm matter, instead of just simply staying surprised and angry about it. It all worked out, because you took a proactive stance, and now you can feel good about your actions. Congratulations!
What a great story. I recently got a raise and before I went into the meeting, I made sure to have all the compensation statistics handy.
It was very prudent of you to have all that backup information ready. Congrats!
Great job on the meeting. I can’t imagine how I would have had to work to control myself all the way through the lunch!
Good for you for gaining the courage to approach the boss and present your case. All too often I think people are thankful just to have the job… and don’t want to take a risk in rocking the boat.
It is way too easy to simply be thankful for what we have instead of fighting for what we are worth. If you are an asset to your company there is absolutely no shame in highlighting what you bring to the table. Many times the boss is too busy to notice that someone else is busting their behinds as well!
Glassdoor, who knew? I certainly didn’t. Thanks for sharing such a valuable resource. When I took my first “real” professional job after college I had no idea what salary I was “worth”. Come to find out (when I was leaving the position) a peer in a similar job to mine was making $15k more. I was devastated and felt totally used. The organization itself was great, but I’ll always feel a little jaded about the whole thing. After that job I learned the art of salary negotiation really quick
Wow… super cool site. I had never heard of it before. I bet a lot of employers are wishing that site could stay a secret!
You should be very careful with your co-workers. Maybe it is just our office environment but I trust no one. We don’t discuss anything pay related because people got into trouble before. Anyhow… I do like how you handled the situation. Well done and hopefully, your pay increase is coming pretty soon.
Federal law now guarantees the right to discuss working conditions *including pay and other compensation* with your coworkers. If your company disciplines or fires you because you discussed these sorts of things, it exposes the company to legal recourse by you.
I’ve always worked in the finance part of the company, so I’ve almost always known what everybody makes. It was interesting at first, but like anything the more you’re exposed to it, the less it matters to you. “Huh, the CEO makes $350k and the CFO makes $275k, not bad.” I think you handled the task of getting a raise very professionally, and I’m sure your manager appreciated that. Obviously he knows how much you make too, so you asking probably wasn’t a surprise either.
I found out and I definitely didn’t handle it as gracefully as you which I totally regret. I’ll have to write about my experience – it was kind of the opposite of yours. Good job handling it so well!
I recently found out that I make much more than someone who I work with, even though she’s been here since the beginning. Definitely scares me if she finds out.
However, I also know that in other parts of the country, people in my position make MUCH more than me. In the hundreds of thousands.
Luckily I work for the Government so everyone in my area is on the same pay scale. But I could see why business’s feel this way. Way to go for standing up for yourself.
In a lot of companies pay scales are decided on at a much higher level than locally. This means that a line manager often has very little say about how much you earn. It does seem unfair though that tow co-workers are on different pay if both do the same job, and have been with the company for the same amount of time.
Keep in mind that it is against federal labor law for companies to prevent employees from discussing their pay:
http://www.twc.state.tx.us/news/efte/salary_discussions.html
You realize that if you read that picture as all those stupid little word games with them are supposed to read, it says “Paid Underline” not “Underpaid”. If you wanted to make a graphic that said “Underpaid” shouldn’t it be “Paid/X” or something along those lines? It doesn’t make any sense that “Under” is actually under paid. If you read that, it’d be “Under under paid”.
Zach… fair point!
Congrats on having the bravery to face your boss and be straight about what you wanted out of your career!
At my job, they are paying me at least $15k/year less than I “should” be getting. I just found out that the SECRETARY makes more than me, and I’m a technical writer. I have only been there for 7 months, but I am going to make the case for a HUGE raise once I hit the one-year mark. I am kinda “stuck” in this small town for personal reasons, and there are basically no other jobs for me here. It really makes me mad.
My group is making a good $20k less than the other group, who has gotten two promotions in the last year. How they worked that out in local government, when we’re told repeatedly that there is no budget for raises, I’ll never know.
An upset coworker of mine decided to take it to the Director, since our salaries are public record. She’s a grandmother taking care of her deceased daughter’s 3 kids, barely scraping by. What happened when she asked for a raise? She got a demotion! They claim she scored unsatisfactorily on her evaluation because she doesn’t work well in a team environment.
Side note, one of the overpaid employees is a freshman in college. Yeah, time to find a new job!
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My situation was little bit different. They hire a co-worker to do the same job as me but they decide to pay him more, when I ask about (of course I was frustrated, I have a B.S and a Masters on the way, yes I am a young female) the VP decide to wait on my increase. Four months after he was fire I resign and went to another job for the same pay but I left because I didn’t felt value as an employee. I am glad it worked for you.
So, I am in a dilemma. I found out out (someone left a printout on the printer) out of all my peers (all managers) I have the least stock options. Everyone else has 5,000 shares and I have 3,500. How should I approach my manager to discuss this?
I worked as an accountant for a large well known company. I know I was very underpaid on my last job, but I was afraid to ask for a raise- why? Because a co-worker before me asked for an additional raise (after just receiving a 10% raise). Mind you, with an additional 10% raise, she was still 15K less than the last person in the position (who didn’t even have a degree). The boss was fuming and told her that if she didn’t like it, she could think about working somewhere else. Well, this was a Friday. On Monday, he came in and decided to fire her claiming she cheated on her timesheet.