What if I am Being Underpaid?

You might think job-hunting is hard, and it certainly is, but once someone actually offers you a job you are faced with problems of a different kind. You have to decide to accept the offer the company is giving you. On the surface this might seem like a no-brainer, especially if you have been job-hunting a long time or are desperately in need of work. Then you accept the job, no questions asked. But the details of salary and benefits and your job description are all important, and it can be really tricky to know if you are being offered what you’re worth.

With Aurora and Snow having both recently started new jobs and Ariel starting to think about applying, I figured my friends might have some worthy thoughts on this topic. But it all came to my mind after an enlightening conversation I had this week with my boss (my principal). I had been wondering for a while whether I was being paid a good salary. I mean, it seems good enough to me, but did the person putting together my offer (who at the time was a different principal who no longer works here) take into account my Master’s degree? Did he pick a number out of the sky, or did he go out of his way to be fair? I had no way of knowing, so I decided to ask to see the school’s salary scale, a chart showing how years of experience and levels of education correspond with salaries. Back home, this information for teachers is pretty easy to find on your state’s website, but I had never been shown anything of the kind, either before or after being hired.

So, I asked. And my principal was happy to show me, though early in the conversation it became clear that he himself hadn’t made this salary scale, didn’t fully understand or agree with it, and wasn’t enforcing it. According to the chart, I should have been making about $800 more per month because of my Master’s degree. When I told my principal what I was actually making, he was shocked! He didn’t even know that I had a Master’s degree, but he would have thought I’d be making more regardless. Then he told me about a couple of other teachers who were making less than me but had more years of experience. All around, nothing was making sense.

I concluded that most, if not all, of the teachers at my school are getting underpaid (at least if this chart is to be believed). But some have signed a two year contract, and that locks your salary in for the remainder of the contract. Even then, if you sign on for a third year, you only get a 5% increase. My school is a pretty kooky place, so it doesn’t surprise me that they have a document on file that is supposed to guarantee teachers certain wages, but they are disregarding it entirely. But it still feels like I have been cheated. It certainly does not make me want to sign the two year contract they have been hammering out the details of for months already. But what are the chances of getting anything to change now? It’s not my principal’s call alone—he has to convince the school owners that there is money in the budget for increasing everyone’s salaries…which there probably isn’t. They will likely remind me that I signed an offer letter for the modest, reasonable sum that I am currently making. Why should they change it now?

This brings me back to my original questions about accepting jobs. The person offering you the job seems to have all this power! They determine the numbers, and it’s up to you to accept it or not. Or, is it? I’ve heard of people negotiating these things, but that seems so intimidating when you’re a twenty-something just starting your career. Can we really afford to risk asking for more? But what do we lose in the long run if we settle for less than we’re worth?

My husband encountered something similar in his job as well. After grad school he got two job offers. One was clearly better: a higher salary, more benefits, and it would take us to a more desirable location. He accepted it happily. However, more recently he has learned that his company has pay ranges that are associated with different “grade codes” or levels in the company. Meaning, a new hire with a Master’s degree would be a grade code X, and grade code X’s should make between Y and Z amount. But the problem is, my husband, and all of his colleagues who were hired straight from the local university, were hired at a pay grade lower than Y! Even now, almost three years and several raises later, he is not making the “minimum” for his grade code.

But, he agreed to it, right? It was perfectly good enough for us at the time, so why should we complain? In a sense, we shouldn’t. We are blessed to be in a position where we don’t really need that additional money. But, simultaneously, it irks me to know that a company can just offer you whatever they think you’ll accept, not what you deserve or even what their policies dictate.

So, what do you think? Should we be more discerning when accepting new jobs and try to negotiate a better deal, or just be happy that we’re getting the job in the first place? How can we find the right balance?