How can I address being paid less than my male colleagues with similar or lesser roles in my company?

Question

I am a female developer that has been working at a company for two years. Last November I asked for a £3500 pay rise which I believe will put me inline for what I should be paid for my role. I was promised that the pay rise would come in January with the annual pay reviews, it never happened.

I have brought up the issue several times with my boss who keeps saying that it will come soon. Since asking for the pay rise three things have happened:

1. I have had my contract changed so I am working for the parent company essentially doing the same role with the same boss / team etc. I thought this would be a great time to get my pay rise, instead I only got £1000.
2. Then I had 'junior' dropped from my title and more responsibilities added to my job.
3. And finally a junior developer has been hired two months ago who I am training up, who I know is on £1000 more than me. His job advert was sent out offering more money than what I was on, and even if he took the lowest bracket he would be making more than me.

I like doing my job but I am feeling very demotivated with the current situation. I always go above and beyond what is needed of me at work, I keep up with the latest trends and I am always working on up-skilling myself outside of work. I have started to look for new jobs which I don't really want to do but the low pay is forcing my hand, I really need to start saving more money.

Do you think there is anyway I can resolve this situation without having to look for another job? Approaching my boss with "If you don't give me a pay rise I am quitting" seems like it could backfire. Also there is the gender pay gap issue, taking my employer to court would make working there awkward if I were to stay.

I believe this is a gender issue, I am also paid less than my male colleague who is 'on the same level' as me and we do very similar roles. It could be argued that he has been working in the role longer so should be on more money, but when a junior arrives that has less experience and does less work gets paid more than me it just enforces this suspicion.

How can I address this issue properly, when it seems like this is a case of gender bias in determining salary?

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Update: Thank-you for all the responses, my original question has been altered many times by other users which has made it more about gender than the fact a junior was getting paid more than me (I only suggested my pay disparity could be because of my gender), either way, the advice has been helpful.

I had a meeting with my boss and asked him about my pay, I decided his response was not encouraging and that day contacted a recruiter which ultimately found me a new job, which pays a lot more than the pay rise I initially asked for and is a much better working environment. Thank-you.

Answer 1

I'm a female developer with 10 years' experience (despite my name here:)) and unfortunately this is a familiar situation.

I think gnasher729's answer is excellent.

The only thing I'd add to gnasher729's answer is some advice on process. I would do the following:

• Write up the facts, as briefly as you can. I'd start by noting your salary vs the junior that you are training (so clearly you are being paid below market rate), and vs your colleague on the same level. Then say that you have previously raised the pay issue on dates X and Y and nothing has been done (refer to emails or meetings if you can, but it's also fine to say that you had verbal conversations on approximate dates if that's all you can remember).
• Say that you are making a formal request that the salary for your new role should match your colleague's, or the market rate of £3.5k above your current rate (I would find out which is higher and ask for that!). I would ask for backdated pay, dating from when you started in your new role. I would end by saying that the company has a legal duty to pay men and women equally for the same work, under the Equal Pay Act 1970.
• Ask for a meeting with your line manager. Go verbally over the points in the letter: if you are nervous, it's fine just to read it out. Ask for a formal response within 14 days. You don't need to threaten to leave, or do anything: just say that you need a response in writing. Smile, be friendly, and simply say that it needs fixing, and you're grateful for their attention. If they ask you about your plans, just say you'll wait for their response then consider your options.
• Say that you'll also send the request by email to the manager and to your HR department after the meeting, and do so.
• Wait 14 days. If you don't get a response by then, or if the response is negative, then you need to consider your options.

I have negotiated more than 20 contracts, and it gets easier over time. The key is to be friendly, professional, and treat it as a market negotiation, not a personal issue.

Personally, if I didn't get a prompt and unequivocally positive response, I would leave the company. It's a very strong market for developers out there at the moment.

Following a process like this will make it all more businesslike and less stressful. Good luck!

Answer 2

There is no reason to assume that the pay raise didn't arrive because you are a woman, but there are the facts that (a) you didn't get a pay rise, (b) you make less than a junior that you are training, and (c) you are a woman.

So you go to your boss, you tell him the fact that you were promised a pay rise, you didn't get it and make less than a junior, and your suspicion that this is due to your gender. You said that "If you don't give me a pay rise I am quitting" might be a bad move. That's correct. You word it differently. Ask him if he thinks you are not worth the raise, and ask him why it didn't arrive. Ask whether he thinks you are worth less than your junior colleague. Ask him how much replacing you would cost him. Make it hard for him.

Remember ever reading that women's salaries are lower because women are not as good as negotiating? So forget about being polite. If you think you are embarrasingly impolite, then you are about right.

And remember that you can move to another company, and some mid-level developer will get annoyed about finding out that you, the not-junior-anymore that he's training, make more than he does.

Answer 3

I work in the US, but I believe that this generally applies: companies that don't care if they pay a new hire more than current employees are the same kinds of companies where they promise pay raises and don't award them. These companies have little interest in retaining their talent, and you can't stay there very long if you want to be paid fairly.

Stupidly, some companies see that it's personally inconvenient to change jobs and bet on people accepting lower money to not complicate their lives, while not realizing it's far more expensive to the company if they are continuously hiring. (Studies show it's cheaper to overpay people because of time lost hiring, training, etc and the fact that you often overpay to attract people.)

While you're still at this company, I'd push them to keep their word and give you the promised raise, but privately I'd make an exit strategy as you are likely to be constantly in the position of having to raise a stink in order to get paid.

Edit: also, you have much more flexibility to evaluate a law suit based on gender discrimination if you're moving on from the company. Suing the place you work is very messy, as you recognize in the question.

Answer 4

If you want more money you need to move on.

Any time there is a request for a pay rise there is an implication that you will look for other employment if you don't get it. You don't have to explicitly say so. In your case there has been multiple requests answered with fob-offs and no follow up so you have zero leverage.

You either went about it in the wrong fashion at the outset or they have no interest in paying you more and don't care or don't believe you will leave over it.

I'm not going to discuss the gender stuff, this problem happens to men as well.

Answer 5

I'm going to assume this is your first developer role?

As a web developer you are in high demand, there is a staffing shortage worldwide for devs. After just 12 months in the industry you are considerably more valuable.

My advice is to start applying for new jobs.

Answer 6

It's been a long time since I've had a decent pay rise. Having a £3,500 would be unheard of in the days of small incremental increases.

Generally speaking, the only way of getting a good raise these days is to move jobs.

It certainly looks from your question that you've been promised a 3.5K increase, but whether this is a promise to give it to you or a promise to look into it is less clear. I'd certainly want that kind of increase put in writing asap (and I'd probably frame it!).

Sadly, the rate of wage increases seems to be slower than the rate of increase for new hires (which is why changing jobs is the more common way of getting rises). You appear to be stuck in this world.

Using the gender pay gap as a reason to force a pay rise might not work if you're being paid the same wage bracket as other male members of your team who have been working there as long or longer than you have. To play that card, you need to be certain that your salary is being artificially held back.

You have the previous promise of the 3.5K increase - you should chase that and try to find out why it hasn't been awarded to you.

Answer 7

Happiness is a big thing, so the most important question is can you be happy with the current situation or not in the long run?

If so then, just keep your head up and stay positive, don't spread any negative talk or rumors and undermine anything. Stay better than that and keep on trucking.

If not then, I'd just move on as soon as I found a position within another organization. There could be a number of reasons why there is a difference that is not related to gender. As a developer myself, I've seen so many reasons for pay disparity. Anywhere from coding ability to attitude to imagination, it could be anything.

But you've asked multiple times and for one reason or another, they've been unable to match your desired rate. So find a company that will match your needs. Sometimes we have to leave the companies we want to stay at, unfortunate but part of how things work in life.

Answer 8

Your approach should be to assume that there is no discrimination

Now, I know people might say

What? Is this guy crazy?

The answer is yes, but not about this.

If there comes a time that you need to prove discrimination, you have to demonstrate that you've taken every possible remedy towards your present situation. So that means going on an aggressive campaign to increase your salary.

Document everything

That's all the hard work, all the staying late, all the additional responsibilities. so that when you approach your company for a rise, then you'll have an answer to any disinclination they have to give you one.

I stay longer than Bob, have a delivered more than Joe, have brought in more money than Steven, so I believe I am worth significantly more.

This question has some answers on how you should approach this.

WHY YOU SHOULD TAKE THIS APPROACH

Right now, there is a bit of a backlash going on in the corporate world. There has been some abuse of the laws with regards to discrimination, so companies are more cautious to act, as are the courts.

You want to be in a position where you can claim that you have tried all of these methods, and have been dismissed, disregarded and ignored. You will be in a position where you've already destroyed any defense against a discrimination lawsuit.

• They can't say that you didn't ask, because you did
• They can't say that other workers have done more, or that they thought they did (willful ignorance) because you've brought it to their attention. So if you do end up having to take action, you can prove that you've exhausted every other venue and preempted any defense that they will have to the contrary.

Another advantage to this approach is it will tell you for sure if someone is holding you back or if they were either ignorant of the situation or thought you were happy in it.

EITHER WAY YOU WIN

Here's why.

If you get what you want without any threats of a lawsuit or claims of discrimination. You get what you want and will be seen as a dedicated worker and will have a good reputation to boot.

If you don't get what you want, you'll have solid things for a resume for your next employer.

If it comes to the point of requiring to file a lawsuit. You will be in a very strong position as you will not be able to be painted as someone who is suit happy or who did not try to resolve the situation on your own. You will come across as someone who tried everything to get ahead and was blocked at every turn. THAT will make you a sympathetic litigant and someone who would be very hard to discredit.

Good luck

Answer 9

Plenty of answers but here are my two cents:

It's not 100% necessary it's gender issue. A male buddy of mine works in an all male office. The recently new hired entry levels make more than him with, while he's having 2-3 years experience in that job. That's more of the company staying competitive with new hires and my buddy not getting proper raise trough the years.

I too (a male) was only getting 1k a year raise + starting off really low. When I quit the job advert for my replacement had a started salary posted at a bit higher than what I was making at that point.

One can make a conclusion that it's better to change jobs every few years to stay on top of the market and be payed accordingly, one can wish to not make this conclusion.

Answer 10

If I had a penny for every time I was promised or asked for a raise, I would be a rich man. As far as I remember, in my 20 something years in the industry, it only happened twice, and because I was performing stellar work.

I learned over time that you have to play hard ball when negotiating, and when offered less money for a "promise" of a "possible" promotion/raise "in a very short time", you should say no.

Sadly, the firms that are willing to raise your salary, even by one cent, are far and between, and often the only form of getting more raises is moving to another job, and negotiate it well.

Also, from the voice of experience, the best strategy is keeping the head down, moving out without notice, and not accepting counter-offers.

As for promises, and whatever they say about your work, some places resort to manipulation, either praising you, or making promises for the future, or pointing or invent flaws to play with your confidence when you are young. The advice I can give you of the wisdom I gained of the years, is do not pay so much attention to what they say, look more attentively to what they do.

Unfortunately, such is the industry situation, many of us have gone multiples times through your exact situation, and I am afraid you are the one making it a gender issue. It is not.

PS. Over my work history, I had to jump cities several times to be able to progress in my career and get significant raises.

Answer 11

Your boss went back on his word, I believe it is inefficient to spend time trying to factually negotiate with such people.

Get an offer for somewhere else with approx 20% more salary, go back to your boss to hand in your notice - at THIS point, it is likely they will offer a raise. If not, new job will be better.

Recommend: StackOverflow jobs

Answer 12

Your problem is not your boss or your salary but (spoiler alert)you.

Instead of guesstimating the reasons why you are underpaid by a lying boss go get a job elsewhere.

There is this common problem that people want "fix", "justice", "fair", "reasonable"...

This is not how market works. Probabilistically bad companies go out of bussiness, good ones do not. If you care about your career it is up to you to take care of yourself and not waste time trying to fix the world.

Also you should consider that maybe you are not underpaid, comparing developers by duties/titles is very crude, for example Google/FB juniors are paid more than most experienced developers.

So if you want to stay in the same company and argue about raising your current salary you

should

• list how you performed your job well, preferably specific projects and examples instead of generic BS
• market rate for similar jobs

and you

should not

• accuse boss of sexism(even if true this is bad tactics)
• talk about the salaries of your coworkers(you can do this indirectly as suggested in the should section, but mentioning particular people in your team is bad tactics)

Answer 13

This is unlikely to be a gender issue.

I am sure you have heard that companies in general offer unenticing yearly pay raises and have trouble with employee retention. This is because for them if you take a lower raise than you are worth, but stay on then they get to keep you and save money on what they would normally be paying for that position. It sounds nefarious, but is sadly very common. Employment is a battle of the wages that everyone today loses the longer they stay with a company. There are exceptions but this seems to be the norm.

After time your current salary will not keep up with your worth. It is very common for older employees to be paid less than new hires. This is why it is suggested to seek new employment when you want a pay raise in this industry.

Answer 14

The first issue is that you don't know that the junior is getting paid more than you.

You say that the hiring advertisement showed a salary higher than yours, but it is common for dishonest employers to advertise a salary and then:

1. If they get an applicant who is extremely well qualified, they will offer to pay exactly what they advertised
2. If they get an applicant who is not well qualified, they will offer to pay him less than what they advertised

Even a "salary range" doesn't mean anything. You said you are training him and he is considered a Junior, so it seems he is not well qualified. Maybe the employer expected more qualified applicants, and he was the best that applied, so they offered him less than what was advertised based on his lack of experience/qualifications. You should at least ask him what his salary is before you jump to conclusions.

You work for the same employer that he does. Is your salary exactly what was advertised?

The second issue is that you say it's a gender issue, and that the reason you know this is because you are a woman and get paid less than someone else who is a man. You are the one being sexist because you are asserting that you should be paid the same as someone else because you have different genders. Why does being a woman entitle you to be paid the same as someone else?

They have their own contract, and you don't give any explanation about why they are getting paid more than you. Did you and he start working there at the same time? And did you start at the same salary? If that's the case, and you received a $1000 raise while he received a larger raise, maybe it's because of difference in achievements over the time since you both started. Or did you just accept the lowest number in the salary range while he negotiated for a higher number? Did he start at a higher salary than you?

You seem to lack all of the relevant information and have jumped to nonsensical conclusions.

In conclusion, I think you may be being paid less than you are worth because of your unwillingness to risk leaving your job for a better one. You are not happy with your salary but are unwilling to tell your boss that if they don't pay you more you will leave and get a job that pays you what you are worth. This is probably because of your personality traits, which is probably because you are a woman. But this is not someone discriminating against you, this is you undervaluing yourself and being happy with a worse job than you are capable of finding.

With the amount of time you have spent at that organization (more than 1 year), you are worth probably +$10000 per year to +$15000 per year what you were worth when you started there. The fact that you are still doing your original duties (no doubt much more competently and efficiently than you could do them a year ago) plus more duties including training other staff, as well as keeping up with new technologies and expanding your abilities outside of work hours, your true value seems like it would be closer to +$15000 of what you were worth when you started.

Finally, you mention pay rises and salary amounts multiple times without specifying the units ($3500, $1000, $1000). Is this per year or per month or what? I just want to point out that even first year university students know how important units are, and if your +$1000 raise was per month then that would be +$12000 per year and closer to what I would expect.

Answer 15

The other answers already tell you what you should do, so I want to add a few strategies how you should talk to your employer to finally get your rise.

• Don't ask for a rise, ask for an adjustment of salary. A "rise" sounds like something given to you out of benevolence. But in reality your position chanced, your responsibilities changed, you want to adjust your salary to the quality of services you performed.
• Give them odd numbers. If you ask for £2500, the first "natural" step in negotiation is to bargain you down to £2000 or £1500. If you ask for £2450, your employer will stumble over the number and there is no "natural" step to bargain you down to. It also implies that you have a very specific idea about what your worth is.
• Assure your employer that you really want to stay in the company, but make it clear that your current salary is a reason for you to look for alternatives. Remind them much you know about your work - after all you are teaching a new employee. Loosing insider know-how can be very costly to companies.
• Remind them of the fact that they promised you a rise and did not fulfill their promise. Apply to their honor or concience if you think that will persuade them.

Now the big Don'ts you should avoid at all cost:

• "Give me more money or else..." is more likely to elicit counterpressure, stubbornness and conflicts than gaining you any advantage.
• Don't make it about your gender or another persons salary. Other answers covered that sufficiently.
• Don't just resign in order to get more money in a different company. Talk to your employer first.

Answer 16

Here's the actual answer to your actual question:

Do you think there is anyway I can resolve this situation without having to look for another job?

The answer, as a matter of negotiation science,

is very simply

No.

It's just that simple. You cannot negotiate anything, at all unless you can walk away, unless you have an alternative.

At this time, you have to aggressively get more contract offers.

Only then can you "negotiate".

Answer 17

I believe you when you say gender may be a factor here. Lots of people are quick to point other reasons why you may be getting paid less, however the most likely explanation for most of the difference is gender, given we know how systemic the gender pay difference is across most industries and countries (for UK, there is an overall gender pay gap of 18.1%; see also Reuters). On top of this you know the culture of the company.

It's unlikely that anyone is saying "pay her less because she is a women". Instead they are letting their biases influence their judgement. They may be judging that you are less likely to leave or that you will be happier with less money because of the characteristics they associate with women. They may even assume you make less of a contribution to the company. The men and women who have these biases don't know they have them. It is very hard to convince them this is happening if they don't want to believe it.

You should do some research and networking. This is so that when you talk to your managers you are confident that you don't need them as much as they need you.

When you ask for more money don't talk about fairness. Instead talk about what you are worth to the company. Come with lots of facts on how much you contribute to the company. Remind them that the recent hire shows the minimum someone with less to contribute than you is worth to the company.

When you have proven your worth then make do something about it. Ask them "what extra do I need to do to be paid what I am worth." Be wary of vague answers, especially based on character traits. Ask follow up questions to make them be specific on what they as asking for. Also be aware of having to meet a bar others don't. Clarify that what you are being asked is expected of people in your position.

Unfortunately, you are likely not to get what you want. You then need to move to another company where you can get the respect you deserve.

If you leave you have to decide whether to tell them why. In almost all cases I advise not to say anything negative when leaving a company. That is probably the best thing to do. However if you feel you can take the risk of a hit to your reputation then you could tell them you left because you felt less valued as a women. It won't make a difference in the short term but perhaps if we all push back on sexism where we can little actions will accumulate to change over the long term.

Answer 18

Everything is not as it seems. Some people can contribute lots of value to the company and the reason for having them in a seemingly low "position"/title/role is that they are most productive when they don't have lots of duties stealing their time, dragging them down.

If you "upgrade" the role of those people there is a chance they will become less productive and less motivated.

So your perception that title or role in company and wage should correlate is simply incorrect.

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edit

I think this was famously concluded in Dilbert cartoon. It is very often that people get promoted until they reach their first level of incompetence. If pay is always higher with promotion then a company like that will end up having people stuck in their first level of incompetence roles.