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Am I being greedy?

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zpyder:
My employer, a local government, uses pay bands. We've had statements in the past, and there's wording in our contracts, that if you are deemed to be performing acceptably, you should expect to be paid at the mid point of the band, which has been set by job comparisons. So the mid point should be the average pay nationally for your type of job. If you exceed expectations that can go up to 115% of your band.

For the last 5 years I've always been deemed to be a high performer, exceeding expectations. Yet my pay was at something like 92% of my band (it ranges from 85-115% per band). When I realised that despite being highly valued by my employer, I was being paid less than the average for my position, it pissed me off.

I threw a hissy fit near the start of the year, threatened to leave, applied for a job and got an interview, and in that time they bumped my pay by nearly $10k which put me I think at about 102 or 105% of my band. All was well, but I still was a little miffed that it took the threat of leaving to prompt action that they should have been doing anyway.

We've not had any annual pay rises the last 2 years due to covid. They recognised that due to inflation etc that this year they needed to do rises. Everyone got letters yesterday. Mine was all blah blah blah about how valued our work was and then a short paragraph at the end saying as I had recently had a promotion or pay rise (more than 6 months ago) I did not qualify for a pay adjustment this year.

The language of it all has wound me up somewhat. If they had even given me a 0.1% rise, I'd probably not have thought anything more of it. But to reference a rise near the start of the year that I shouldn't have needed to have (had I done it 6 months earlier I'd qualify I guess) kind of puts my feelings about my employment back to where it was pre rise... They don't care and will try to swindle at every opportunity.

I have two weeks to contest their decision, but want to gauge if I'm being greedy in these times.

(I'm also classed as a high risk employee... As in a risk of me leaving... The only other one in the my department who is high risk is contesting his letter as they got his grade wrong and paid him a lump sum instead of a rise. ..)

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neXus:

--- Quote ---For the last 5 years I've always been deemed to be a high performer, exceeding expectations. Yet my pay was at something like 92% of my band (it ranges from 85-115% per band). When I realised that despite being highly valued by my employer, I was being paid less than the average for my position, it pissed me off.
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This is 100% Australia and New Zealand mate. 100%.

Employers will know you are good, they know what you should be on but they all leave it for you to ask / demand the pay rise. They will not even do the inflation rates. In fact they will pay rise the lower folk in the company closer to minimum wage if that goes up etc because its those volumes of people which they would see complaints and government step in and fines.
So unless you are the big wigs giving each other pay rises etc or that. You got to fight for your worth even when they know it.

It is the attitude over here.
You are not wrong and I am sure 100% owed.

Especially in NZ as well the day in loo?(spelling) business where they wont pay for overtime but expect it and will just give you holiday days. But when they mount up they will and can force you to take them as well.
Employment is a bit out dated in both countries in a lot of ways - 100%.




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Clock'd 0Ne:
It is not greedy to value yourself and your work and be compensated accordingly. I don't think this is just a NZ problem, or even country specific either. It's down to individual employers and what they feel they can get away with vs how competitive the market is.

As a software developer, I am always inundated with offers via LinkedIn mostly, but as a former colleague moved on a few months ago and he reached out to me to take a look at their vacancies, I decided to check it out and apply for a more senior position.

Long story short, even though I am happy where I am working and on a good salary it wasn't really market rate or competitive and they knew that, so when I was offered the position at this other company my line manager turned around and said give us some time to make a counter offer. I got a promotion and matching payrise as of the start of November.

Value yourself, be prepared to go to interviews and call out your employer by voting with your feet. If you are truly valued and invaluable through your skills, work ethic or domain knowledge, they should fight to keep you. If they don't then you know where you stood.

matt5cott:
Most people won't kick up a fuss, employers know this and will always pay as little as they can, I'm leaving very long term employment soon and one of the reasons being in the last 10 years I think the biggest pay rise we've had is 0.5%!

Not sure how it is there but here most know a large percentage in gov and such will see it as a "job for life" And you don't get much push back, people will moan but do f all about it, "talk is cheap".


--- Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on December 01, 2021, 09:13:06 AM ---Value yourself, be prepared to go to interviews and call out your employer by voting with your feet. If you are truly valued and invaluable through your skills, work ethic or domain knowledge, they should fight to keep you. If they don't then you know where you stood.

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100%

Serious:
If you don't promote yourself you will never get what you are worth. Had you not been worth it they would have told you to leave.

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