Prince

I work for a nursing home as a CNA, and make $8.50/h. I've worked there for a year, during which time I've only missed three shifts due to sickness, and been late only once due to car breakdown, and even then for just 20 minutes. When the next shift is short and need help, I stay over.

In other words, I'm a reliable employee, and have a reputation of a good worker among my peers.

A new aide, who's been with us on the same shift for less than a month, makes 25 cents more per hour than I do. Petty as it may be, this pisses me off. She only let this slip because she thought that's we all make.

I know it doesn't add up to being that much more, about 2 bucks more per shift, but it's really the principle of it that gets to me.

What she makes is really between her and the company, and none of my business, but I can't help but feel disrespected. I believe that the reason she makes what she makes is that they had a hard time finding anyone to work. A lot of people have been quitting the company because they're treating people like shit, and our shift was short for a couple of months straight, and they had to use agency. So, they probably used a higher than average pay as a bait. I don't know.

Little good does that do to my self-esteem.

Have you ever found out that a co-worker of yours who does the same work you do with the same experience gets paid more? If so, what was your reaction?

__________________
Who is John Galt?

Charlatan

Speak to your boss.

Ask for a raise. They probably won't give you one unless you ask for it.

If they say they can't give you one, point out that you are aware another employee (no names) makes more. I would use this arguement off the top as you may get more money in your raise if you don't say you want just 25 cents more...

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Cartuni

Many times companies will do salary/market surveys to determine a competitive starting salary for hiring new employees. This can result in exactly your situation – a new person comes in at a higher hourly rate. Not fair; HOWEVER – this means that your job probably has a higher ‘market rate’ also. Definitely ask your boss for a salary review, based on your level/experience/work history in the current market.

maleficent

Everyone cuts their own deal when they get hired at an employer. It's not a slight against you, that she was hired at more than your salary.

Ask for a salary review, but do not bring up that employee A makes more than you do, you have to be judged on your own merits, not on what someone new is getting.

Be prepared for what yo will do if you don't get a satisfactory raise.

__________________

*Nikki*

Where I work I found out that two new hires make the same amount I do and I have been there for more then four years. Also they make $2 more an hour then one of our other employees who has also been there many years. I was pretty damn pissed off when I found out about this and so were other people. However we are not supposed to discuss salary, in fact we can be fired for doing so. So seems like we are all just stuck unless we ask for a raise.

Strange Famous

I know how much everyine in my company gets paid - or at least what they were on 8 months ago, cos I used to the cashier. I know that there are people who are at a level below me you get paid more... but what can I do?

I dont really begrudge anyone who gets more than me, I just want what I consider to be a fair wage for myself, if someone can bargain better to get better than me, good for them.

__________________
"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

The Gospel of Thomas

f6twister

Are their other factors which could have lead to more money? Did she have experience at another job? Does she have additional training in an aspect of the job which they want in an employee? Even if she doesn't, she may have just asked for it and got it.

Having been there for a year, this may be a good time to ask for a raise. I faced a similar situation once and when I brought up the wage of the other employee, I got slammed by my boss and did not get a raise. You are better off going in and selling yourself instead of whining about the other person's wage (and yes, whining is how they will hear it).

__________________
A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day. Calvin

Sage

You don't perchance work for Mission Hospital in Asheville NC, do you?

You also have to think that the company may have raised the pay rate to adjust for inflation over the year you were working there. That happened a lot where I used to work- new hires started off at a higher rate of pay than old hires started off at, and it's just because HR decided that it's better to give new employees more money starting off than giving current employees a raise. Talk to your boss, ask about perhaps a raise- most places do yearly evals/raises anyway.

__________________

Squishor

Sometimes it's just not fair.

I've been pretty peeved ay my job because I found out that another employee who has been there far less time than me (I trained her) moved to another department where the work is arguably easier and is making $1 more per hour. Of course, she's also fighting cancer, which is why she moved (she no longer has to work in the field, but can now work from home). I'm really in kind of a sticky spot because although I really don't want to begrudge the poor lady with cancer her lousy buck an hour, it's still not fair and it bothers me. It's kind of about the pinciple of it rather than about that specific co-worker.

Anyhow, what I did was ask for a raise without bringing up the other person's pay. It took a while, but eventually I got it. However, in the process I felt like I learned something about the company I work for that led me to decide that, ultimately, I don't want to stay there.

ShaniFaye

speaking as the person who gets paid more than her boss....

I work for a very large company....I started out in the payroll department because of my accounting background...so I knew what everybody made from the plant employees to our airplane pilot to our CEO and CFO. (which can be pretty depressing in itself)

After being in a job where I could take NO vacation or be out sick from December thru april each year....and pulling 65-70 hour weeks during tax season, I got burned out and applied for a lateral move in the company. I applied for an engineering position. The payroll position paid 5k more a year than what I was applying for....I told them in NO uncertain terms I would not take a pay cut.

They agreed, they said in the long run it would be better to have someone already familiar with the company, had already had all the pre hiring crap done and had already proven themselves work ethic wise.

The only thing that they asked was in addition to the designing I would be doing would be to be admin support for the 6 person engineering team I was joining (which basically saved them money because Im doing the job of two people) The work is ridicuously easy so I accepted. Now, having been in payroll I knew what my new boss was making, and he had 11 more years with the company than me. fortunately for me he was great about it and agreed that I was perfect for the position and no problem with me making more money.

My point in saying all that is....you dont always know that the new person hired has agreed to...for example when I took my new position I had to agree to no raise for 2 years (which they changed their minds on because of all the good reports I got....I got a 2% raise each of the last two years..my normal was 6% but since I had agreed to no raise who was I to complain?) Lots of people cut their own deal when being hired. Hell the person that took over my position in payroll started at 10k more a year than what I did lol.

I wouldnt sweat it since you dont know all the ins and outs of the hiring of this person.

__________________
I want the diabetic plan that comes with rollover carbs. I dont like the unused one expiring at midnite!!

Enka

This happened to me as well. I started off making $7.50/hour, then got bumped up to $7.72 after a few months. Turns out the people who were hired at the time I got my raise, started off at $8/hour. Once they got their raises, they were making $8.24! After a year I got a raise, and I was only making $8.19! There really wasnt much I could do about it, and I figured there was no point in making a fuss over 6 cents. Almost a year later I'm making $9.75 and about to get another raise in a month, while they're making less than $9, because I got promoted

I guess patience is the key!

jorgelito

I cannot believe you nurses make so little!! That just doesn't make sense. Nurses are critical to our healthcare, to pay them LESS than a barista at Starbucks is....disturbing. No wonder there's a nursing shortage. I thought supply demand determined wage. If that's the case, nurses should hold all the cards.

I don't know where you live (I'm guessing Minnesota?) but you should consider moving to California. My friend's mom is a nurse and she makes $80,000-120,000 depending on how much overtime she has to work. Plus the state gives all sorts of incentives for schooling etc for nurses. We have a severe shortage of nurses here. At UCLA ( an ok hospital by any standards) there were 7500 patients for a capacity of 5000. On my grandma's floor, there were only two nurses for 150 patients: It took a long time to call a nurse. No wonder they're threatening to strike.

Astrocloud

When I was an engineer I found out that I actually got paid more than some of my coworkers. I think that -at the time- the HR guy rolled out the red carpet because I offered him about 9+ leads of people looking for work there.

Since everyone there pretty much got laid off -I've come to the conclusion that it just doesn't matter and that you should always hold out for more pay.

Of course right now I aint makin anything...

vanblah

Do not bring up the fact that you know someone else is making more than you. A lot of companies have polices that allow them to terminate you just for bringing it up. It depends on the state you work in and the companies own policies.

Just do a salary comparison at Monster.com and then tell them that you need to find out how to increase your salary.

The biggest mistake people make when asking for a raise is just simply "demanding" more money.

You have to make it look like you are willing to actually work more. Just say you are interested in increasing your salary and what can you do to make it possible. Don't be afraid to outline the things you already do as well.

If you feel that you are already doing more than what you are making then point that out as well.

The point is you have to make it look like you are more valuable to them.

(edited for clarity)

TM875

You know, I just had a conversation tonight with a good friend of mine about this. Pay difference such as these can have a devastating impact on worker morale. He's a professor, and there are constant battles between the departments due to the pay differences (typically, business profs get paid more than, say, political science profs).

All in all, this creates unneeded tension. Explain to your boss that you feel you deserve more. More than that, don't let yourself feel bad because of this - often, the pay differences have no relation to your actual work performance. Heck, I was a manager at my place of work, but still got paid FAR less than some of my other employees. I'm talking a $5-$8 per hour difference. I didn't let that effect my quality of work - just do your best, and eventually your hard work will be noticed and will pay off.

__________________
"I've made only one mistake in my life. But I made it over and over and over. That was saying 'yes' when I meant 'no'. Forgive me."

sashime76

If the "new" guy/gal has a ton of past experience then I think it's justifiable. I started my current job about 15 months ago and started at the higher pay scale of the position.

I don't know what others (same rank) make but I do know I'm on the upper end, according to our HR. I was told it wasn't likely they would meet my salary requirement stated in my resume but they did.

Before coming to this company, I've had several certifications covering many areas, 6 Sigma, ISO9002, ISO14000, 5-S, T.I.E. I started up two new production lines for my former company before transferring to a different department. I believe my past experiences justify my higher "entry" level pay.

I'd say it's unfair when you have a coworker who takes extended lunch break, leaves for home on company time to fix his son's computer. When he comes in at the final phase of a new project, does a few measurements and makes the new product launch team. That's what ticks me off. Then again, if the department heads and VP are his buddies, what are you gonna do?

greeneyes

As a manager I can tell you that if someone wants a raise, I want to hear about their performance, not their personal gripe about someone else's paycheck.

That being said, if you go in and ask for a raise based on your own merits, are denied, and feel the need to push the issue further, I would recommend looking for an advertisement wherein they indicate higher pay than what you make. For instance, if they advertise your position on CareerBuilder or in the newspaper and list a pay that is higher than yours, bring that in. You could also consider bringing in a competitor's advertisement to indicate your position's current market value.

Since you have worked there for a year, perhaps you are due for a review during which you may receive a raise. I would recommend waiting until your review (if it is sometime soon) to discuss a raise, but only AFTER the review has been completed and they did not indicate a pay raise.

Best of luck!

__________________
Put the blame on me
So you don't feel a thing

Go on and save yourself
Take it out on me

astrahl

As other people have said, that person's qualifications may have justified the increase in salary. A degree or an extra year of experience, etc.

__________________
Maybe it was over when she chucked me out the Rover at full speed.
Maybe Maybe...
~a-Ha

ratbastid

Why were you even discussing it? How did this even come up?

Pay rates are all negotiated individually between the individual and the company and it varies for all sorts of reasons. There's a reason it's supposed to be confidential--people think it's "unfair" or something.

It's a mark of unprofessional workers, to have them discussing their salaries with each other. In my very first job, a few of my cow-orkers would compare paychecks, on payday. "How much did you get? Oh! I got this much. How much did YOU get?" I always refused to participate in that game, because I didn't want to know who was getting what.

Captain Nemo

As a supervisor, I can tell you that this happens all of the time, and to those of you who think that the time you spend on the job equates to more pay, you're wrong. It is about performance, background, experience, etc. The surest way to irritate an employer is to ask for a raise because someone else is making more than you. There could be viable reasons for that. Instead ask your employer for an evaluation and design a performance plan for the near future. Ask them point blank to describe what you need to do to get a raise.

lindseylatch

damn, that sucks. I gotta tell ya, I was cleaning out dog kennels for the county and I made like $10/hr.
I'm guessing that you guys don't have a union, which sucks lots and lots.
I've seen/heard of a number of assisted living facilities and nursing homes that treat their NAs like shit. I'd suggest going for full RN. I've heard they're in short supply, so hospitals and docs are desperate.

__________________
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."
"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
-Voltaire

Cynthetiq

As a person I did the exact same thing. It's no one's business but my own.

As a manager of 15 people when they came to me crying that so and so made more and it pissed them off, I said,"If you don't think that I'm paying you fair wages for the experience and workload you deliver, the door is right there and I'm not standing in your way."

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.