AboutDoug Staneart Expertise Doug Staneart can answer questions about gaining cooperation from, motivating, and influencing coworkers and employers. He is also an expert on how to avoid and resolve conflicts as well as other issues dealing with long term business relationships.
Experience
Doug Staneart has been a speaker and trainer for over ten years specializing in public speaking, leadership training, and team building. Doug is CEO of The Leader?s Institute® (Leadership Training) based in Dallas and author of the books 40 Ways to Influence People and Fearless Presentations. He has accumulated over 2700 hours of classroom coaching and training and began his career with Dale Carnegie Training® where he was recognized on numerous occasions for superior instruction.
Question I'm a paramedic with 15 years service with the same company. A co-worker-same classification - makes $2.21/hr more then I do with only 11 yrs of service. I've asked HR to fix or explain this discrepency for the past 6 months, and continue to be put off with various, "we're working on it" answers. Do I have legal options?....Thank You
Answer Clifton,
Most of the time, I find that when pay is distributed unequally like this, it occurs for one or two different reasons.
The most common reason is that the person who gets paid more has asked for more raises that the person who gets paid less. In order to ask for a raise, you'll want to show how you are worth the bump. For instance, if you are taking more calls or if your care is better in some way, you are worth more to the company and they will pay more to keep you. If you just want the bump because someone else is making more than you, then you probably won't get very far.
If this first instance is the case, then chances are that the person who has been there for 11 years has asked for raises more consistently than you, so you can't expect to get to his/her level with one bump. Over the next few years, ask for little bumps at a time.
A second possibility is that there is some type of performance based raises in place tied to annual reviews or assessments. If this is the case, the the person may have performed better on these assessments for some reason. It could be that the person is a better employee, or it could just mean that the person is a better politician and plays the game better. It's hard to say without knowing the specifics.
In any case, even if there is a legal reason for you to get a raise, you wouldn't want to take that route. Let's say you were the boss, and were looking at promoting someone or giving out bonuses or raises. Would you give it out to the person who has show consistent stability or the one who just filed a grievance claiming that the company is unfair in their pay policies. It is a good way to get you out of a good job quickly.
