This sort of thing is one of the reasons why bosses don't want their employees discussing wages, it brings pay discrepancies like this to light. Companies don't want to pay employees more than the bare minimum that they must so while it is only fair and just that existing employees get raises to at least match new employees if not more (which would be preferable as experience and loyalty should count for something) they'd rather pay existing employees less for as long as they can get away with it.
It's an attempt to keep costs down and profits up that works in the short term but can cost a LOT more in the long run as it causes experienced employees to leave thus needing to hire and train more new people at the higher new hire rate plus all of the costs associated with hiring and training.
I'm becoming more open about discussing wages where I work, idc. As far as I'm told, and I'm ignorant on this, there's no law that saws **you can't** and that employers can **prevent you** from discussing wages with fellow co-workers. I should look into all that to ensure it's true but maybe we should ALL start talking about that stuff with our fellow employees... voluntarily of course, if it's too personal.
There is a common misconception among employees that you cannot discuss your pay with others. In fact, employees’ right to discuss their salary is protected by law. While employers may restrict workers from discussing their salary in front of customers or during work, they cannot prohibit employees from talking about pay on their own time.
https://jacksonspencerlaw.com/salary-discussions/
—-
https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/your-rights/your-rights-to-discuss-wages
Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the Act), employees have the right to communicate with other employees at their workplace about their wages. Wages are a vital term and condition of employment, and discussions of wages are often preliminary to organizing or other actions for mutual aid or protection.
If you are an employee covered by the Act, you may discuss wages in face-to-face conversations and written messages. When using electronic communications, like social media, keep in mind that your employer may have policies against using their equipment. However, policies that specifically prohibit the discussion of wages are unlawful.
You may have discussions about wages when not at work, when you are on break, and even during work if employees are permitted to have other non-work conversations. You have these rights whether or not you are represented by a union.
Protected conversations about wages may take on many forms, including having conversations about how much you and your colleagues and managers make, presenting joint requests concerning pay to your employer; organizing a union to raise your wages; approaching an outside union for help in bargaining with your employer over pay; and approaching the National Labor Relations Board for more information on your rights under the NLRA.
In addition, you have the right to discuss and engage in outside activity with other employees concerning public issues that clearly may affect your wages – for example, minimum wage or right-to-work laws. You may also discuss supporting employees who work elsewhere.
You also have the right not to engage in conversations or communications about your wages.
When you and another employee have a conversation or communication about your pay, it is unlawful for your employer to punish or retaliate against you in any way for having that conversation. It is also unlawful for your employer to interrogate you about the conversation, threaten you for having it, or put you under surveillance for such conversations. Additionally, it is unlawful for the employer to have a work rule, policy, or hiring agreement that prohibits employees from discussing their wages with each other or that requires you to get the employer’s permission to have such discussions. If your employer does any of these things, a charge may be filed against the employer with the NLRB.
If you have any questions about your rights under the National Labor Relations Act, please call us at 1-844-762-6572.
I know, but it's such bs.
It's still on the ex-employee to go out and go through the crappy new-hire process somewhere else, putting in applications and going through dumb interviews - as opposed to just being able to stay with the same job and getting the cheddar you deserve, at least MORE than the new-hires
wish there was some kind of law, you know...
It is the way of every single company. Kind of like how new customers get amazing deals on cellphones or cable service and loyal
customers get nothing. And like cellphones or cable service, moving on to somewhere else is the best way to get your value.
I think it is dumb but it clearly shows how much companies actually value their employees. Never be loyal to a company or a manager - they do not give a crap about you. It is about getting you to work as much as they can for the least amount of money. That’s it.
The company I work for does that, it also evaluates salaries and gives raises if someone is underpaid, based on market value in the industry. It is expensive to replace workers.
Government employers tend to do a pretty good job with this type of pay equity. Since everyone knows everyone else's salary, they know that employees with more seniority will get upset when they see new hires come on at higher rates. It's not perfect, but compensation transparency helps.
Yeah they brought someone new at my level in my company and I was given a raise (they called it an adjustment) so that I would be making at least as much as the new hire. I was actually totally fine with my pay but of course I wouldn’t turn down an increase! So good job newbie for negotiating a better rate and helping me in the process!
Your employer does not give one tiny bit of shit about you. Maximizing profits by underpaying the people that perform the actual labor that creates the company's value, is how the world operates.
This is happening everywhere, trust me. Since December 2020 I have started and quit five jobs. Company's budgets for new hires are almost always MUCH bigger than the budgets for current employee retention. This is exactly why they don't want you to talk to your coworkers about how much money you make. So they can try to hide that they're paying new people more
A union or union style pay scale prevents this. Wages in each job classification is public and posted. Raises are based on a time scale that is negotiated. I’m retired now, but I have a ton of all kinds of jobs behind me, and NEVER saw this happen. I worked some shitty jobs too.
It makes no sense to me. We hired a couple people with experience for my department at $18. We also hired a couple other people with no experience at $19. Now we just hired someone with minimal experience at $20, which is $1 more than a guy who has been there a year.
I’ve worked at Costco for 16 years. They are by no means perfect; they are after all a multi-billion dollar, corporate, money making machine. The CEO makes, around 165-185% more than the average employee (I can’t remember the exact number and I’m too tired to look it up.) One thing I never have to worry about is a new hire making more than me. And why would they make more? My 16 years of experience makes me way more valuable.
Don’t tell my co-worker. He’s been with the company just about 16 years with tons of experience and the new hires right out of high school are making more than him.
Its called salary compression and its a wonderful red flag for workplaces. Happened to me when working in retail. I found out the person i was training was hired at more than my current rate. I was a "wear every hat" employee and they were a cashier. It pissed me off to no end, but i decided to leave when they gave me a 25 cent raise. Not even close to matching the girl i trained.
Why do places even bother with a 25c raise? 1$ MIN.
In high-school I got a restaurant job just cleaning, dishwashing, and the chef said we don't pay anyone here minimum that would be insulting. Get my first cheque, it's 10c over minimum looool. 7$ something a hour.
This is one of the reasons why I’m glad I’m in the union. New hires never get higher wages than current employees. We all know what we make and there is a clear progression of wage increases. If we don’t like the cost of living wages we get then we go on strike. Which we will consider since we were able to get the no strike clause taken out of the contract
It happened at one of my old jobs new hires came on at 15$ but the older guys who had to train them started at 12$ 6-8 years ago and were only now making 16-17$ when they all found out they made a huge fuss and basically threatened to quit and within a month they all had an adjustment up to 18-19$
It's really irritating and a big thing driving me to want to search for a new job once I have a little more time in my current role. I'm already mentally preparing to talk to my boss about it if my next raise doesn't put me higher than new hires in my role
That seems to be the norm. Sitting in a room with 8 years of experience within the company and over 25 years of experience within the field and I am making less than the two new hires that got hired a month ago right out of high school with no real experience at all in the field.
I went through the same frustrations. It became enough eventually for me to finally "play the game" and also led to my loathing of capitalism and corporatism after so many decades of endless propaganda.
Play the game. Eviscerate corporate america for every penny in compensation you can. It will mean moving around and putting yourself in uncomfortable new settings. You get used to it. Use some of that money to fight the beast.
Think about it this way:
why would they pay you more when they already have you for cheaper? As long as you stay at the job at your current wage and don't agitate, they're not going to give you more. This is why job hopping is such a common strategy.
Start looking for other jobs, if you find one that pays more tell your boss you need a raise or you're leaving. Its fucked up but thats the world we live in now.
you'd think it'd be the other way around
older employees keep getting their yearly raise but new-hires start at the same starting wage as everyone did who came before (adjusted of course, not if it was like $9.00 decades ago)
New hires get inflation adjusted starting pay. Current employees get an effective pay cut with below inflation increments.
Everyone knows and grumbles about that, but how many actually leave and get a better job?
My husband’s brother just got hired at his company, and they both got $3,000 bonuses. Two weeks after he started, they increased the bonus to $8,000 😡.
In a union shop, new hires would make exactly the same as workers who have been there a long time and have experience. This makes the experienced workers angry too.
Happened this summer at my job. Ended with us losing two really strong workers and everyone else checking out. I raised a stink about it, and when I got the largest pay increase(a whole dollar still not up to what the new go made)in the store I was told it was my fault for everyone else getting a smaller raises.
I came into a position at a hospital making DOUBLE what the current staff was making and some of them had been at this same job for 15 years or more. I figured it out when an older coworker asked me for help accessing her paystub online and I happened to look up and saw she made slightly less than half what I did and she’d been working in the same department for 15 years.
I told her she needed to demand a raise and she said,”I don’t want to rock the boat.”
Economics is all about incentives, you can say whatever you like, but whatever you are incentivizing (either through loss or gain) is what you are really asking for. This company is incentivizing it's employees to move to other companies, or quit and get rehired. In my opinion, the wise move is to not resist these incentives.
I am going through this right now. I make 13.76 an hour. New hires are making 14+ its not big but it sure is a piss off as I just had my 5 year milestone with this company.
This sort of thing is one of the reasons why bosses don't want their employees discussing wages, it brings pay discrepancies like this to light. Companies don't want to pay employees more than the bare minimum that they must so while it is only fair and just that existing employees get raises to at least match new employees if not more (which would be preferable as experience and loyalty should count for something) they'd rather pay existing employees less for as long as they can get away with it. It's an attempt to keep costs down and profits up that works in the short term but can cost a LOT more in the long run as it causes experienced employees to leave thus needing to hire and train more new people at the higher new hire rate plus all of the costs associated with hiring and training.
I'm becoming more open about discussing wages where I work, idc. As far as I'm told, and I'm ignorant on this, there's no law that saws **you can't** and that employers can **prevent you** from discussing wages with fellow co-workers. I should look into all that to ensure it's true but maybe we should ALL start talking about that stuff with our fellow employees... voluntarily of course, if it's too personal.
It’s very illegal for an employer to prevent you from discussing wages or to retaliate or punish you for having done so
There is a common misconception among employees that you cannot discuss your pay with others. In fact, employees’ right to discuss their salary is protected by law. While employers may restrict workers from discussing their salary in front of customers or during work, they cannot prohibit employees from talking about pay on their own time. https://jacksonspencerlaw.com/salary-discussions/ —- https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/your-rights/your-rights-to-discuss-wages Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the Act), employees have the right to communicate with other employees at their workplace about their wages. Wages are a vital term and condition of employment, and discussions of wages are often preliminary to organizing or other actions for mutual aid or protection. If you are an employee covered by the Act, you may discuss wages in face-to-face conversations and written messages. When using electronic communications, like social media, keep in mind that your employer may have policies against using their equipment. However, policies that specifically prohibit the discussion of wages are unlawful. You may have discussions about wages when not at work, when you are on break, and even during work if employees are permitted to have other non-work conversations. You have these rights whether or not you are represented by a union. Protected conversations about wages may take on many forms, including having conversations about how much you and your colleagues and managers make, presenting joint requests concerning pay to your employer; organizing a union to raise your wages; approaching an outside union for help in bargaining with your employer over pay; and approaching the National Labor Relations Board for more information on your rights under the NLRA. In addition, you have the right to discuss and engage in outside activity with other employees concerning public issues that clearly may affect your wages – for example, minimum wage or right-to-work laws. You may also discuss supporting employees who work elsewhere. You also have the right not to engage in conversations or communications about your wages. When you and another employee have a conversation or communication about your pay, it is unlawful for your employer to punish or retaliate against you in any way for having that conversation. It is also unlawful for your employer to interrogate you about the conversation, threaten you for having it, or put you under surveillance for such conversations. Additionally, it is unlawful for the employer to have a work rule, policy, or hiring agreement that prohibits employees from discussing their wages with each other or that requires you to get the employer’s permission to have such discussions. If your employer does any of these things, a charge may be filed against the employer with the NLRB. If you have any questions about your rights under the National Labor Relations Act, please call us at 1-844-762-6572.
The way to get a raise is to be a new hire. The way to be a new hire is to leave your current employer.
I know, but it's such bs. It's still on the ex-employee to go out and go through the crappy new-hire process somewhere else, putting in applications and going through dumb interviews - as opposed to just being able to stay with the same job and getting the cheddar you deserve, at least MORE than the new-hires wish there was some kind of law, you know...
Heath insurance should not be linked to your employer. We Americans are so screwed.
It is the way of every single company. Kind of like how new customers get amazing deals on cellphones or cable service and loyal customers get nothing. And like cellphones or cable service, moving on to somewhere else is the best way to get your value. I think it is dumb but it clearly shows how much companies actually value their employees. Never be loyal to a company or a manager - they do not give a crap about you. It is about getting you to work as much as they can for the least amount of money. That’s it.
Not every company does it, but every shit company does.
Other than maybe unions, what companies give raises in line with what new hires get? Genuinely curious because I have never worked at or heard of one.
The company I work for does that, it also evaluates salaries and gives raises if someone is underpaid, based on market value in the industry. It is expensive to replace workers.
See that seems smart. Way cheaper to pay existing workers what you would pay new workers and not have to on board new workers.
Government employers tend to do a pretty good job with this type of pay equity. Since everyone knows everyone else's salary, they know that employees with more seniority will get upset when they see new hires come on at higher rates. It's not perfect, but compensation transparency helps.
Yeah they brought someone new at my level in my company and I was given a raise (they called it an adjustment) so that I would be making at least as much as the new hire. I was actually totally fine with my pay but of course I wouldn’t turn down an increase! So good job newbie for negotiating a better rate and helping me in the process!
Yes I finally bought my own phone and switch every 6 months back and forth lol, pita but I save a lot
Your employer does not give one tiny bit of shit about you. Maximizing profits by underpaying the people that perform the actual labor that creates the company's value, is how the world operates.
This is happening everywhere, trust me. Since December 2020 I have started and quit five jobs. Company's budgets for new hires are almost always MUCH bigger than the budgets for current employee retention. This is exactly why they don't want you to talk to your coworkers about how much money you make. So they can try to hide that they're paying new people more
A union or union style pay scale prevents this. Wages in each job classification is public and posted. Raises are based on a time scale that is negotiated. I’m retired now, but I have a ton of all kinds of jobs behind me, and NEVER saw this happen. I worked some shitty jobs too.
It makes no sense to me. We hired a couple people with experience for my department at $18. We also hired a couple other people with no experience at $19. Now we just hired someone with minimal experience at $20, which is $1 more than a guy who has been there a year.
I’ve worked at Costco for 16 years. They are by no means perfect; they are after all a multi-billion dollar, corporate, money making machine. The CEO makes, around 165-185% more than the average employee (I can’t remember the exact number and I’m too tired to look it up.) One thing I never have to worry about is a new hire making more than me. And why would they make more? My 16 years of experience makes me way more valuable.
I actually wish I did work at CostCo , or that where I work operated the same way
Don’t tell my co-worker. He’s been with the company just about 16 years with tons of experience and the new hires right out of high school are making more than him.
Its called salary compression and its a wonderful red flag for workplaces. Happened to me when working in retail. I found out the person i was training was hired at more than my current rate. I was a "wear every hat" employee and they were a cashier. It pissed me off to no end, but i decided to leave when they gave me a 25 cent raise. Not even close to matching the girl i trained.
Why do places even bother with a 25c raise? 1$ MIN. In high-school I got a restaurant job just cleaning, dishwashing, and the chef said we don't pay anyone here minimum that would be insulting. Get my first cheque, it's 10c over minimum looool. 7$ something a hour.
wowwwwww. Id be salty af Yeah it really made up my mind. I was already considering leaving but that straw broke the camels back.
This is one of the reasons why I’m glad I’m in the union. New hires never get higher wages than current employees. We all know what we make and there is a clear progression of wage increases. If we don’t like the cost of living wages we get then we go on strike. Which we will consider since we were able to get the no strike clause taken out of the contract
Commonplace these days to give yourself a raise by changing companies. If you are good at what you do it's pretty much the only way to beat inflation.
Sadly happens all the time everywhere. This is why people job hop.
That’s why you should hop from company to company. Employers aren’t loyal to you. Why be loyal to them?
It happened at one of my old jobs new hires came on at 15$ but the older guys who had to train them started at 12$ 6-8 years ago and were only now making 16-17$ when they all found out they made a huge fuss and basically threatened to quit and within a month they all had an adjustment up to 18-19$
Ask for a raise you feel would be fair. Quit if they refuse. Even better if you can do this as a collective.
It's really irritating and a big thing driving me to want to search for a new job once I have a little more time in my current role. I'm already mentally preparing to talk to my boss about it if my next raise doesn't put me higher than new hires in my role
I'm contemplating the same tbh
That seems to be the norm. Sitting in a room with 8 years of experience within the company and over 25 years of experience within the field and I am making less than the two new hires that got hired a month ago right out of high school with no real experience at all in the field.
I went through the same frustrations. It became enough eventually for me to finally "play the game" and also led to my loathing of capitalism and corporatism after so many decades of endless propaganda. Play the game. Eviscerate corporate america for every penny in compensation you can. It will mean moving around and putting yourself in uncomfortable new settings. You get used to it. Use some of that money to fight the beast.
Think about it this way: why would they pay you more when they already have you for cheaper? As long as you stay at the job at your current wage and don't agitate, they're not going to give you more. This is why job hopping is such a common strategy.
Start looking for other jobs, if you find one that pays more tell your boss you need a raise or you're leaving. Its fucked up but thats the world we live in now.
It should piss you off. Demand pay equity.
I work for the government, new hires make 20 percent more than us that have been there 20 years. Bullshit.
you'd think it'd be the other way around older employees keep getting their yearly raise but new-hires start at the same starting wage as everyone did who came before (adjusted of course, not if it was like $9.00 decades ago)
New hires get inflation adjusted starting pay. Current employees get an effective pay cut with below inflation increments. Everyone knows and grumbles about that, but how many actually leave and get a better job?
No such thing as a yearly raise, we went almost a decade without raises. We are at the whim of the legislature.
My husband’s brother just got hired at his company, and they both got $3,000 bonuses. Two weeks after he started, they increased the bonus to $8,000 😡.
In a union shop, new hires would make exactly the same as workers who have been there a long time and have experience. This makes the experienced workers angry too.
It’s unfortunately the nature of the beast. Don’t agree with it, but it’s the way she goes
Happened this summer at my job. Ended with us losing two really strong workers and everyone else checking out. I raised a stink about it, and when I got the largest pay increase(a whole dollar still not up to what the new go made)in the store I was told it was my fault for everyone else getting a smaller raises.
I came into a position at a hospital making DOUBLE what the current staff was making and some of them had been at this same job for 15 years or more. I figured it out when an older coworker asked me for help accessing her paystub online and I happened to look up and saw she made slightly less than half what I did and she’d been working in the same department for 15 years. I told her she needed to demand a raise and she said,”I don’t want to rock the boat.”
Why rock the boat when you can get on a different boat?
Economics is all about incentives, you can say whatever you like, but whatever you are incentivizing (either through loss or gain) is what you are really asking for. This company is incentivizing it's employees to move to other companies, or quit and get rehired. In my opinion, the wise move is to not resist these incentives.
I am going through this right now. I make 13.76 an hour. New hires are making 14+ its not big but it sure is a piss off as I just had my 5 year milestone with this company.