Salary: long term vs. new hireThe key to your whole post is two words: "second hand". The old saying goes "Believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear." Unless you are the one looking at payroll records, resumes, backgrounds, qualifications, education, etc... there is no way you can judge who should be making more and who should be making less. Most companies realize that it is stupid to pay employees doing the same or similar jobs a big difference in salaries. You just end up with disgruntled employees and lots of turnover. If you really think you are being wronged, you can (a) speak up, but understand that you may not have your facts straight, (b) do nothing and try to get raises based on your own merit rather than what you may think other people are paid, or (c) find another job. I would have also quoted the old adage, "Don' t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see." In addition to what Chet wrote, there' s also the very strong likelihood that the longer term employees are being paid significantly higher salaries than the new people, so it would make sense that smaller percentage increases would result in more real dollars. If the new people are starting, as I suspect they are, for fewer dollars to begin with, the higher percentage salary increases could easily translate into less real dollars than are being received by the long-term employees. But that ultimately isn' t the point. There are host of variables that influence what people are paid and it would be a mistake to assume that length of service is the only factor when it comes to raises. Just because somebody' s been there 10 years doesn' t automatically mean they' re doing a better job than somebody who' s only been there a year. Since you really don' t know what the facts truly are, I think it would a serious error in judgement to bring the salary increase issue up to your manager on that basis. The far better way to approach the raise question is to politely ask if the amount of YOUR increase is negotiable and see what sort of response you receive. If it' s not, and you think you' re receiving less that you should, your only option may be to initiate a job search. If the amount of your raise can be reconsidered, base your appeal on the overall quality of your own performance, not on what you "think" other people are being paid. Not to sound harsh, but what others are being paid is nobody else' s business. "Fairness" isn' t the issue either, the quality of your individual job performance is really the only basis on which to build a case for a larger raise. Hope this helps. Not to muddy the waters, but i have worked with a great deal of financial data, salary information, HRIS implementations, systems, upkeeping, and this sort of things happens all the time. It is commonplace. Stupid, but commonplace. Employers are banking on the fact that employees are not discussing thier salaries. They fill open positions more often than not at equal or higher than incumbant similar positions. I have personal friends who are director level and higher in HR and connections...it does happen, and frequently. When I have inquired about this practice, the solution is usually that the company has pay bands of some type, that increase each year at a rate...if at some point the employee is almost beneath their payband because it is progressing faster thean their raises they geta bump to stay in the payband. I posed a similar question about pay raises and getting ahead if you stay at a company. NO suggestions or ideas came of that post. I would say the trick is to get promted within and keep climbing the ladder or to switch jobs, but not to take a job that is not at a really decent pay rate you will be happy with for a while. It I am in a good place and ythe market is in a good place that if the money to start isn' t quite what I' d hope or been able to secure in negotioations that it' s pretty much that way going forward, tight with raises, etc., Take a job with pay you' ll be happy at for the next three years. Then leave in three years to upgrade... I came in higher than peers in my department who were here 5 years...but I wouldnt say we were equivalent, I am much more marketable and more updated. You know some people stay in jobs and stay and stay because they are no longer marketable and in fact would take a pay cut if they left...the peddulum really swings both ways. So what can you do, hop, or stay and relax and cool out and become a status quo paycheck collector doing just the minimum amount required to stay employed. The problem with that is if you have an ounce of passion or ambition it gets old fast. The solution to this is to publish everyon' s salaries and increases. I specifically ask employers what I must do to get an exceeds on my evaluation and what the maximum amount of money an exceeding evaluation gets you, in may cases the extra 2% of pay is not even worth the hours and stress and you are better off not even bothering to try and exceed expectations. The solution is to go to work for yourself, start your own company. How would you give yourself raises? What would you base it on? Showing up for the last 365 days? I did expect that my lack of facts would generate the most attention,and I respect that. Even though I trust my information, I agreethat hearsay and rumors are certainly no grounds to base a negotiationand only helps to discredit the argument. Everyone likes to believe they' re #1, but in my case I do hold a team lead position for agrowing team, and I am known for my ability to solve problems. Inother words, I don' t think I' ve reached a career plateau justyet. I think my best bet is to strive for promotion and the associated pay increase. My only other options are to consider ajob search (one reason I' m on this site!) or discuss a salaryincrease. I' m skeptical that the latter will provide the desired results. One problem is that there is really no competition for the type ofengineering I do in my area. A change in jobs implies an almostcertain relocation, and I think this can hurt in terms of pay increases. I have mixed emotions about the reply from IstoleYourCheese. It' sgood to hear that I might not be overly paranoid, but it' s bad in termsof practice and there seems to be no good solution. | |
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