Unfair Salary Employment Practice

[Engrave]

I'm in the state of California. I've been working for this company almost 3 yrs. Each year i've received a .25 an hr raise. Last year a new employee was hired to do the same job as I. She had no expereince and her starting pay was more than what I make after 3yrs. Today I noticed an ad in the paper, this company is hiring more help. They are hiring all the new help at an hrly wage of .50 an hr more than mine (same job). I brought this issue up to my boss. She informed me that the company only gives 1 raise a year and for never more than .25 an hr. She didn't even want to hear I was being under paid. Anybody have any advice or help for me? I don't really want to quit my job. However I don't want to be treated unfairly either.

 

[rivulus]

Welcome to the real world! No matter how unfair it seems,there is nothing that you can do about it. I worked for a retail establishment for over 7 years. Started at minimum wage and was given 2 $.25 raises over the 1st 2 years. That put me at $4.75/hr. which at the time was more than minimum. There were no more raises for the next 4+ years - both for myself as well as the other employees (one had not seen a raise for over 5 years!). The minimum wage went up to $4.75 during that time. All of a sudden,the manager hired a high school girl to do a menial job (clean bird cages) at $4.75. Less than month later,she received a raise in pay (the girl blabbed it to several employees) that put her above most of the long time employees. Checking in with the Labor Dept. revealed that it was not illegal,unless it was a man getting higher pay than a woman for the same work. In this case,it wasn't. She cleaned bird cages. The rest were the sales staff. It would seem that the sales staff would be paid more,but...




[Edited by rivulus on 04-08-2001 at 04:11 PM]

 

[Attorney_Replogle]

I don't know that you really have a claim for a violation of employment laws. It sounds more like there is a lawful employer discretion as to what to pay employees based on longevity, performance, etc. For more information, read up on the law regarding equal pay at: http://employment-law.freeadvice.com/federal_prohibit.htm