We all have one.

Sara is disappointed in her Director job offer. She communicated her expectations that were aligned to the external market data for this work, the industry, and geographic location. The employer offered base salary and a bonus that is more than 15% less than what is competitive. The recruiter said they couldn’t offer more because of internal equity. There was no long-term incentive grant included as a new hire. She would have to wait for the next annual review cycle in 2024 to be considered for a LTI grant.

Jack was given a promotion without a base salary increase. His manager said that HR wouldn’t approve a pay increase to go with the promotion because his current salary was already in the pay range of the new job.

Melissa was hired to be the Operations Coordinator 2 years ago. She is now managing a group of 5 employees doing customer success work and her title was changed to Customer & Operations Manager. She received a 3% merit increase to her base salary during those 2 years.

Brad has been the Director overseeing a global function in HR for more than 5 years. He has received good performance reviews and merit increases have been the same as the budget percentage. He was reviewing the base pay of his direct reports and found that one of his team members is earning a base salary that is only $1,500 less than his base salary. He talked to his VP and the VP didn’t see the need to change anything. Brad escalated this to the Ethics Hotline of the company. He knew this could be career suicide but did it anyway. The attorney who investigated told Brad there was nothing illegal about this small difference between his pay and that of his direct report. No change in his base salary was the result of the investigation. Brad knows that if he found this in another department that he and his HR team would ensure that the Director’s pay was at least 10%-15% more than the highest paid direct report.

Brooke has been taking on more work over the last 3 years as her peers have quit or were laid off. The Accounting Department consists of her and the Director she reports to. She’s asked for her job responsibilities and pay to be reviewed but the Director keeps saying to be patient. She’s been patient for more than 6 months.

Jesus was hired at the same time as Susan and George into Analyst jobs at a consulting firm. Susan and George have been promoted to Consultant jobs. Jesus has received “exceeds expectations” ratings for the last 2 years. He talked to his manager about this, and the manager says that he will be promoted soon.

We all have a story about our pay and the work situation that was unfair.

What is your story? Or do you know a story that a friend or family member shared with you?

#workplaceequity #promotion #pay #compensation #hr #rewards #payequity #stories #negotiation