Same job-less pay assumptions are often incorrect

By Linda Lerner, Globe Correspondent, 9/5/04

A month ago, I started my new job as a customer service manager for a large national company. After talking to a few people, I discovered that some other people in the company who have the same job as I do make more money than I do. I was so happy when I got this job and now I feel terribly disappointed. Can I renegotiate my offer?

Everyone wants to know if they are being paid the right amount for their job. Usually we have a general sense of what a job in our field and at our level should earn. With the addition of a little research and some discussion with a potential employer, we come to an understanding of the acceptable range of salary and benefits.

We then consider an offer and decide whether or not to accept it based on the salary and several other factors that happen to be important to us personally. Some of those factors might include: who our boss will be, the opportunity for future growth, compatibility with the corporate culture, distance from home, and flexibility of hours worked.

As this short list of considerations makes clear, there is a lot more to job choice then just salary. For further insight into your question, I have consulted with Roe Sie, vice president of compensation and benefits at Cendant's Timeshare Resort Group. He makes the analogy of agreeing to take a new job with agreeing to buy a new car.

''You shop around and select the car you want, negotiate the best deal you can, drive it home, feel great about your new car, and then a month later you learn that a neighbor got a similar car for less,'' Sie said. Can you bring it back and renegotiate the deal?''

He also believes that the frequently heard phrase ''I am paid less for the same job'' is filled with incorrect assumptions. There are often factors that make a difference such as a co-worker's years of experience, the regional pay and cost of living differentials that national companies consider when paying employees in different parts of the country, and a worker's years of service within the company and the industry.

One of the biggest assumptions made by employees is the assumption that a co-worker actually holds the same job.

Often a similar title has behind it differences such as the number of direct reports, the size of the region, the critical nature of that territory to the future plans of the company, the education, professional designations or certifications, and the performance level of the incumbent.

Although we can usually find someone else in our company who we believe works less and is paid more than we are, at some point we should ask ourselves if our pay is within a range that is generally fair and acceptable to us.

If the answer is yes, we need to let go and move on. We can't return the car and we can't renegotiate the job offer.