Equitable Pay

[JM1975]

What is the name of your state? I live in Indiana

I've been with my current company for about 5 years and I've been in the field for over 20 years. I started at $65k per year in 2014 and have had small raises each year to about $69k now. The company recently hired a new Director of Marketing at $85k and Development Director at $90k+. That's nearly a 25% gap between my salary and the LOWER of the two recent hires. As General Manager, I am on the same level on the company org chart we all have similar responsibilities. We are all colleagues and all report equally to the Executive Director. I am a 62 year old male and the new hires are both young women.

Is it fair to ask for a salary increase to address the disparity? Can they fire me for asking? Can this be pursued as an age discrimination case?

Thank You

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? I live in Indiana

I've been with my current company for about 5 years and I've been in the field for over 20 years. I started at $65k per year in 2014 and have had small raises each year to about $69k now. The company recently hired a new Director of Marketing at $85k and Development Director at $90k+. That's nearly a 25% gap between my salary and the LOWER of the two recent hires. As General Manager, I am on the same level on the company org chart we all have similar responsibilities. We are all colleagues and all report equally to the Executive Director. I am a 62 year old male and the new hires are both young women.

Is it fair to ask for a salary increase to address the disparity? Can they fire me for asking? Can this be pursued as an age discrimination case?

Thank You

Since they can fire you for just about any reason that they want to, barring illegal discrimination, as long as they don't say that they are firing you for asking for a raise, they CAN fire you. Whether or not they actually would, would depend a lot on the personality of the person you would ask, and the manner in which you ask.

It does sound like there might be some element of age discrimination going on, but its kind of in reverse of the norm. The norm is a company laying off or firing older workers making more money, and hiring in younger workers, making less.

Its also possible that these two young women are bringing talents/training to the table that you don't have, in newer technologies.

I am curious though about how you even know how much they are being paid. That kind of information is not normally available to other employees.

 

[JM1975]

Neither of these newly hired people have talents, experience or training that I don't have. As noted, I've been in the industry for 20+ years. They are relatively new to the industry.

Our company recently signed on to a new payroll service and I was asked by our Director of Finance to assist with the changeover and convert some documents from PDF to Excel docs. These documents included pay rates, hiring dates, SS numbers, and personal information for all current and past employees.

 

[Zigner]

The were better negotiators than you.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

You are always free to ask for a raise. In general, the employer is always free to fire you.

That said, how old are you and how old are the two new hires?

Also, going to your boss and asking for a raise based on what other's make and your opinion on their talents, experience or training is a really good way to have your boss explain to you why their talents, experience or training are, in fact, better than yours. That will of course end with your hurt feelings and the employer knowing he can't trust you with important company data.

 

[JM1975]

You are always free to ask for a raise. In general, the employer is always free to fire you.

That said, how old are you and how old are the two new hires?

Also, going to your boss and asking for a raise based on what other's make and your opinion on their talents, experience or training is a really good way to have your boss explain to you why their talents, experience or training are, in fact, better than yours. That will of course end with your hurt feelings and the employer knowing he can't trust you with important company data.

I'm 62. They are late twenties to mid thirties.
Its clear that my only leverage would be to look for another job. And you're right PayrollHRGuy; There is no way that I can let on that I know this information.

 

[cbg]

There is also something called market compression, which is a simple fact of corporate life. Because of changes in the market, it is quite common for new hires to be brought in at a higher rate of pay than existing employees. I would venture to say there's a good chance that no matter what their ages or genders, they would have been brought in at higher pay than you.

 

[bcr229]

There is also something called market compression, which is a simple fact of corporate life. Because of changes in the market, it is quite common for new hires to be brought in at a higher rate of pay than existing employees. I would venture to say there's a good chance that no matter what their ages or genders, they would have been brought in at higher pay than you.

Bingo. This is very true in the IT field. If you don't change employers every few years your raises barely keep up with inflation and health insurance premium increases.