Colleague's salary details?

Blingy

I have reason to believe I am on a much lower salary to colleague's at the same level as me and it has been mentioned to me I can request salary details for my team/department. Seemingly the details would only show the grade or level and not names of colleague's(which is obviously fine).
I never knew it was possible to request this detail and just wondering of anyone else has ever done it. Was the request sent to HR or to management?
Just looking for some more details on this. Thank you.

Nody

I can't see under any circumstances that you'd get any such information short of a court order to be honest; I'm not sure who suggested it to you but there is no relevant reason HR would have to give them to you. If you got a salary issue you need to discuss it with your direct line manager and no one else.

Blingy

Nody wrote: »

I can't see under any circumstances that you'd get any such information short of a court order to be honest; I'm not sure who suggested it to you but there is no relevant reason HR would have to give them to you. If you got a salary issue you need to discuss it with your direct line manager and no one else.

Thank you for your reply. I would have been of the same opinion.

Manach

Offhand and this is a stretch, would there be a way via the Employment equality acts where the OP has an honest belief that the salary difference is due to one of the nine relevant grounds of discrimination? - ie doing the same or similar work but not getting the same pay.

helimachoptor

A lot of companies do bench marking exercises for these reasons, if you are on a lesser salary you will be increased, I've had friends who have been through the process some have got payrises of decent amounts while others have got no payrise as they are deemed to be above the benchmark for their role!

However depending on company size they may/may not do this..

tatli_lokma

Some companies to have graded salaries, and in which case they will have a published list of grades and what salary range applies. Perhaps this is what they were referring to?

For eg in my old work place there were grades A - E. Each grade had 3 salary bands - entry level, development level, and experienced range. all salaries had an upper limit which could not be exceeded regardless of length of service. Each job in the company had a job description published on the intranet which specified what grade each position was. No two people with the same job title could be different grades, but their salary could vary by as much as €30k depending where in the salary band they sat. So you might not know exactly how much your colleague was earning but you would know the maximum salary they could be in receipt of on that grade. All of this information was published for all to see as it was necessary to do so to facilitate performance appraisals and self appraisals. Perhaps your company have a similar grading system?

chris85

Manach wrote: »

Offhand and this is a stretch, would there be a way via the Employment equality acts where the OP has an honest belief that the salary difference is due to one of the nine relevant grounds of discrimination? - ie doing the same or similar work but not getting the same pay.

Doing the same work and getting different pay is not discrimination. Many workers may earn more than their peers due to time served, performance, loyality to the company, extra hours put in, qualifications, etc. There are many companies which have same roles but people are paid different due to a number of reasons. This is not discrimination.

If one of the 9 grounds of discrimination is being broken then the employee could seek legal action but they would want to be sure about it as would rule out ever getting a promotion in future, progressing within the company, or stall a whole career depending on the industry. Some small industries every company knows everyone.

I also dont see how the OP would be entitled to see salaries of other workers. OP is working for what she has agreed contractually, unless discrimination is unfair legally then there is nothing wrong here.

Blingy

chris85 wrote: »

Doing the same work and getting different pay is not discrimination. Many workers may earn more than their peers due to time served, performance, loyality to the company, extra hours put in, qualifications, etc. There are many companies which have same roles but people are paid different due to a number of reasons. This is not discrimination.

If one of the 9 grounds of discrimination is being broken then the employee could seek legal action but they would want to be sure about it as would rule out ever getting a promotion in future, progressing within the company, or stall a whole career depending on the industry. Some small industries every company knows everyone.

I also dont see how the OP would be entitled to see salaries of other workers. OP is working for what she has agreed contractually, unless discrimination is unfair legally then there is nothing wrong here.

Sorry maybe I should clarify I do not want to take any legal case against my employer. I was advised by another colleague and a friend outside of the company that you can request a list of salaries for the team/area I work in but the list would include grades instead of names. I was very sceptical of this and wanted to query if anyone had previously heard of it. Thank you for the replies.

Ray Palmer

I think it is simple case of people not knowing the way other companies work. You can find out the pay scale if one exists. If there is no scale you can't ask to see it and therefor can't find out what others likely to be on.

Never known a company to intentionally give out salary details but it is normal for it to get out at some point. Somebody inevitibly makes a mistake. Last place I was in the contract rates were sent out to everybody on the team. Made many people unhappy as they saw people getting paid more who seemed to be never busy. The reason they were never busy was they could handle the capacity with ease and didn't have enough work for their own capacity.

If you feel you are being paid less than others then ask your boss and say you feel you should be equally paid the same as others. He might or might not agree or it may not be true. The problem can be some managers are paid a bonus on keeping costs down. They may actively have incentives to pay people less than others. I have seen some managers try to get rid of team memembers with expereince to keep costs down forgetting these people keep the team running answering the questions of the less experienced.