Hi all,

Currently in the interview process and have been made an conditional offer for a job with an offer a lot lower than I was expecting.

My colleague and I have been interviewed for the same role (There are multiple rolls of the same type) and both been made an offer.

They are desperate for people of my skill set and knowledge and they want me to start as soon as possible.

Here comes the point, my colleague has been offered 67k and I 58k, based on our existing salaries. Apparently they can only offer a certain % above our existing salary.

Although it is a good rise on my current salary, it felt like a kick in the teeth considering my colleague and I are equally skilled.

What do I do?

The company seems a good one to join and I am excited about the prospect of joining them, but knowing my colleague is on 9k more than me hurts.

The offer has literally only just been made so still a bit raw.

Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.

Mark

They can pay anything they like for the right candidate. That strikes me as an excuse.

I'd be honest really. Show your enthusiasm for taking the job but highlight this is a sticking point.
I have left a company for this exact reason. Person sat next to me who leaned on me often was on 8k nor a year. I burst and put my notice in.
I ended up leaving and now on 5k more than the company I left... Although I still don't like the job.

They would be getting you cheap effectively.

They should have balanced the two out and put you on the same for the role.

If you're moving to a new company, your current salary has no bearing on it. If you are taking a new role internally, you should be paid at the level commensuarate with the role, again your current salary should have no bearing.

If the tea lady was offered the CEOs job, she wouldn't do it for a tea lady's salary plus x%.

I'm not sure I'd want to work for a company prepared to operate in this manner. They ovbviously didn't expect you and your colleague to discuss your respective salaries.

My colleague had the offer then put me forward for the equivalent role so the balancing offers would not work, but had we been at the same time then I agree.

On further reflection it also seems like my colleague is to get 2 days holiday more than me, which grates more than the salary difference.

I think I am going to have a conversation with the person making the offer rather than the recruiter and ask them to justify and sell it to me.

Mark, one tactical point you might want to raise with them if they stick to their argument:

Explain that if you take the premise that women are underpaid for doing similar work, then their principle of not paying people the same wage for doing the same work, but pay correlating to their old pay, perpetuates the problem. So if that is their position they may find they are going to fall foul of the Equal Pay Act.

Interesting thought Emjay.

I was going to ask them to justify the difference, but that might take that justification away, although feels a little aggressive.

If you think your worth more, ask for more!
If you think you have done well to get offered that and there is nowhere else for you to go, ask for more but be willing to accept a compromise

It also boils down to the job role and how easy it is to go elsewhere or for the company to hire other people!

Best of luck

I think that is the key here H_R. People with the knowledge and experience of Workforce Management and the product I would be working on, (the same product I work on now) are hard to come by. It takes a good 2 years to truly get someone up to speed at a minimum.

They have been very vocal how desperate they are to get me on-board due to turning away large amounts of work due to limited resources.

The combination of myself and my colleague working together is of huge financial benefit to them.

How would you feel about the offer if your colleague had not been granted the higher rate? That bitter pill aside, it still sounds like a good opportunity.

Does your current salary get topped up at all, either monetarily or 'other' perks/benefits that have not been taken into consideration by the persons determining the new salary proposed with the new job?. Could you fight for a higher uplift based on anything extra you currently recieve ?

Okay so I have drafted a mail. Would be grateful for your feedback:

Good morning Stuart,

Apologies for not getting back to you sooner, I needed a little longer to consider the offer than I originally thought.

The interview process has been a pleasant and dare I say it enjoyable one. At no point during the process have I felt concerned or unduly put under pressure. I 100% believe this is down to the comfortable working environment provided by Company and the confidence each individual involved has in the ability for Company to deliver what it promises. In particular Bassem's confidence and excitement in what he is trying to deliver is infectious.

For me, the potential opportunities to progress my career and build new skills at Company cannot be ignored. Not only that, but with over 8 years of knowledge and experience with the Kronos product I can help Bassem and the team to further develop the Kronos business, provide guidance and assistance to other members of the team and potentially assist in enhancing the offering Compnay provides to its customers. If I were to join the team, not only would you get the knowledge and experience mentioned previously, but you would be gaining a team (In Adam Coyne and I) with a proven track record in providing excellent customer service.

The offer you have made is as follows:

Salary: £58,000
Vacation: 20 days

If you would be able to increase the offer to the below:

Salary: As close to £62,000 as possible
Vacation: 22 days

I would be happy to accept the offer without question, and would start the leaving process at Kronos with immediate affect.

I thank you for the excellent communication up to this point and look forward to hearing from you.

If you need to contact me for a chat please do so on the following number for today only (My personal phone is not currently working).

Tel: ********

Thank you

Mark

If I got that, I would know that if I dug my heels in the applicant would accept the job on the current terms.

You will get lots of suggestions and there is no right or wrong answer, you have to do what you feel comfortable with.

It I were writing, and I wanted to get the increase without rocking the boat too much I think I would say I that I would accept on condition that on successful completion of probationary period salary is increased to 62K and holiday 22 days [presumably plus public hols].

That first line is what worried me. Perhaps lose the close to?

I like the probation option

+1

It feels a bit like sharp practice to base the salary for a role on the candidate's current salary - in my experience, the new role has a salary set at a level to attract the best candidates

I can imagine the role description...

"great job, making widgets - £30k pa, unless you were already in a shit job, in which case its only £20k...."

Mark - in your position, I would come at it from a different perspective and say that you want the same salary as the other people performing the same duties, irrespective of their salary history - if they want you badly enough, they'll find a way to flex the rules

Is there that level of differential between you and your colleague now? If so why, and what have you done to address that, if anything?