Unhappy with managers handling of acquisition, uneven wages between me and a coworker. How should I approach this? [closed]

Question

During my hiring process at job, I was promised a salary review after 3 months however when that 3 month period was up, I was denied my salary review because it coincided with a new company taking over the operation. A week before I requested the review, my co-worked received his 3 month salary review and got an increase in pay. When I complained to my boss he told me not to worry about it, my salary increase will be reflected on the employment offer from the new company. When my offer came in, the increase in pay was very small and I was not satisfied. Earlier today I found out that this co-worker(who started a week before me) received an increase in pay when his new offer came through as well. So now there is a huge pay discrepancy between myself and this other developer, we do this same job and have same qualifications. This wasn't done on purpose in my opinion, the previous boss was very lazy and I think this hiccup came from a lack of effort on his part.

I have a phone call with my new manager today to discuss this issue. How should I approach this?

Answer 1

I have a phone call with my new manager today to discuss this issue. How should I approach this?

HLGEM is right that you should not compare your salary to anyone else's. Here are my thoughts on what you should do thought.

Tell the new boss that you were expecting a 3 month performance review and pay raise. You went through the performance review with very positive reviews, but the pay raise did not happen (presumably) because of the acquisition. Then ask them where things are at.

If they say that you got a pay raise with the acquisition, you can remind them that as far as you are aware others did too, including others who had just received a raise from their 3 month performance review. In other words, based on what you have seen, the pay raise from the acquisition is different from the 3 month performance evaluation pay raise. Then remind them about all the wonderful contributions you are making to the company. See where it goes from there.

Answer 2

What you should do is stop comparing wages with your coworker. That never ends well. Wages are unfair, get used to that. Perhaps they felt his performance was better than yours, perhaps he did a better job of negotiating. Doing the same job doesn't mean salaries will be equal.

Since you want to discuss the issue though, point out that you were expecting a bigger raise and what you have contributed to the organization that justifies that. Do not raise the issue of what the other person makes as that is irrelevant. In this particular case (but in general never mention coworkers when asking for more money), you could point out that he got two raises the 3 month review and the acquisition raise while you only got one. But other than that, keep your mouth off anything to do with the other person's salary.