Ask Julie on The Job: I'm Getting Paid Less for The Same Job

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're waking up with fifth in the morning time.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Julie on the Jobs, our show's career mentor, I soak
up career knowledge, so I hope that if you share
in that you find some value in this career. Happiness
is the keyword you'll need for the pink tickets coming
up in a few minutes. If you're or I'm sorry
if someone you find out that someone that works with
you makes more money than you do, yet you do

(00:24):
the same job. We got this here. Hi, Julie, I'm
currently writing to you with a work dilemma and I'm
in need of some advice. Two years ago, I started
working for a well known company in corporate finance. It's
been going fairly well. I genuinely like the job, the company,
my teammates. But three weeks ago my boss onboarded a
new employee. It's a man into the same position, and

(00:45):
the days that followed I found out that they offered
him six thousand dollars more than they offered me and
I have been here for two years. He's straight out
of college. I want to approach my boss about this
and inquire about a raise, but I'm sure unsure rather
on how to do it and how to approach this situation.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yikes. So, first of all, you are the victim of
internal compression. So what they likely did in the last
two years is they raised their starting salary for your
position without going back and adjusting the people who are
already doing the job. A lot of organizations do that
just with the hopes you won't find out. So there's
a lot more transparency salary wise today all over the place.

(01:28):
So the chances are you are going to find out
and you did. The first thing I'd do is go
on LinkedIn and look at this person's background. Do they
have some experience that you don't have. We have to
make sure before you go to your boss that we're
comparing apples and apples. Okay, so does he have a master's.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
See an ego check right there?

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, are we the same? And if so, go to
your boss and just take the emotion out of it,
just say hey, through ways that don't matter. I've discovered
that the new hires in this role are making five
thousand dollars or more more than I am for doing
the same work. I have two years of solid performance.

(02:07):
What is the plan? To get me get my salary
up to up to on par with the new people
I've been brought in.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
I like how that's worded. Instead of saying, I notice
blank is making blank and I'm not why not, It's
just how am I going to get us?

Speaker 1 (02:23):
I'm going to get there? Because you have to recognize
that there's a real gap here and that you can't
keep that uncovered.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Can you address something that I think some are still
confused on and even including myself. Is there a gender
pay gap?

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yes, there is, But I think part of the reason
for that, and I think women have to own this
and I have put myself in that category for sure,
is that we struggle with asking for what we're worth
where men do not. And so part of the gender
gap is because we haven't negotiated when we started a
new job. And then once you're behind, you stay behind.

(02:58):
So take every opportunity when you get a promotion a
new job, understand what the market's paying, and ask for
what the market's paying, and don't be afraid to line
up what you've done, what your skills and experiences are,
with what the new salary, what your new salary should be.
So we've got to learn to advocate for ourselves. That's
a big part of it.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
One more thing too, you've asked, you've gone through the
research on LinkedIn? Are you comparing apples to apples? You
phrased it correctly right on. How I'm going to get
to this pay that my goal pay, whether it's the
same or above. You took the emotion out of it.
Is there one last thing that you would mention or
anything else that you would do on how to set
something like this up?

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, you know, the understanding market rate is super important,
and so no matter what your job is, you need
to always understand what the market rate is for that role.
And one of my favorite phrases when you're going to
talk to your leader about anything that you're truly you
might be upset about, but I love the phrase, help
me understand. Help me understand the discrepancy between what I'm

(04:02):
being paid and what the new hires are being paid.
It's collaborative and it's unemotional, and you're likely to get
a better response. Approaching it emotionally generally causes people to
shut down.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Julie on the job, thank you so much. That's her handle.
By the way, if you want to reach out to
her specifically, you can I appreciate your stop and buy
Still commercial free coming up at eight thirty yr chance
to win pink tickets. Don't go far. You need the
keyword though, career happiness