Colleague with zero experience paid equally to me. My male colleague blurted out recently that he's looking forward to getting that $2,000 paycheck.

Question

I stared in shock as that's what I get and I've been in this industry (horticulture) for 19 years now. My colleague has 0 experience in this field. I have a 4 year college degree in English, a minor in Botany. He has a 4 year teaching degree, yet hasn't taught a single class due to a felony DUI several years ago. I did confront my boss regarding this wage issue. He said simply, 'Well, you and Chris do the same job and I'm not going to pay him $2-$3 less.' My response was, 'I'm not asking you to do that.', thinking he'd get the idea that I deserve a large raise. When I started at this particular company 6 years ago, I had already 12 years in the Hort industry and my current boss even sold perennials to and dealt with my employer for 10 years. He knew me, knew I was a great employee and I worked for a good company, so I was shocked when I was overlooked and they hired a guy who had no work experience in this industry, but he did have a 4 year degree in Horticulture. Fair enough, however, I was hired as well, but paid $11 per hour while this guy, fresh out of grad school, (yes he did get a Master's) made $18 per hour. We did the same job then, so why now am I getting the run around from my boss? Why was it ok THEN to pay me so much less than my colleague for doing the SAME job and now it's not ok to pay my colleague so much less AND he has 0, I repeat 0, experience? My boss will not answer the above questions. He simply changes the subject. I have certifications I won't bother to list, as they're industry related and boring to the outsider, my male colleague has none of these certifications, I'm always on time, never call in sick, always respectful, get along with my colleagues, always take up overtime when offered, so I'm really quite perplexed here as to why I am getting screwed. Male vs female is all I can come up with in this scenario.

Anonymous · Answer

This is tough and very frustrating. I would suggest approaching your boss one last time with a clear case on why you deserve a raise. Build a business case, provide written notes and documentation about how you add value, etc. You can also do some research on Fairygodboss/other sites to find out what people in your position with your level of experience tend to make, as that will back up your argument. If your boss doesn't seem receptive, you can ask questions about what you'd need to do in order to make the amount that you want. If the conversation doesn't go anywhere, you might consider approaching HR or one of your other superiors with the same business case you're bringing to your boss.  If this doesn't get you anywhere, start looking for other jobs where you'll be earning what you deserve!

Anonymous · Answer

I also work in horticulture and have had issues everywhere I've worked incliding having an alcoholic lazy person  with 0 experience and no qualifications who didn't show up half the time being paid more per hour than I was (I have an associate's band multiple certications and at the time hadby7 years experience) 
Every job has been like that though. Even the hyper feminist guy who was proud to hire women would tell me to piddle around and weed while he did the hedge trimming.  Like wtf did he think I was doing for the previous 4 years that I can't run a hedge trimmer.  I thought he was just OCD until I realized he let the grass guys trim no questions asked.  Or the last boss who trained a seventeen years old kid to use the skid steer but was reluctant to let me do it, even though I had more tractor experience than anyone on the crew.  It's been every single job.

Anonymous · Answer

Something similar happened to me (in a totally different field). If you've brought it up to your manager and gotten nowhere, is there someone in HR or their manager you can talk to? While that might piss off your boss, you have to make sure you're standing up for your rights. Perhaps you can frame the issue in a less personal way when first asking for advice from HR so as not to look initially like you are complaining -- but framing it as just seeking more information about what to do.

Colleague with zero experience paid equally to me. My male colleague blurted out recently that he's looking forward to getting that $2,000 paycheck.

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