I recently found out that a colleague earns almost Dh15,000 a month more than me for doing the same job. While I only found this out because he left his payslip on the photocopier, it has left a bad taste in my mouth. What should I do with this information? DP, Dubai
I can’t help wondering what you did with his payslip once you found it. Did you leave it there? Or give it to him? In short, does he know that you know? I hope he doesn’t get paid more than you because he is seen as careful and meticulous!
Regardless, I suppose that for many of us the differential here is only meaningful in the context of your own overall salary. If you are both earning, for example, over Dh150,000 per month then the differential is minor. But if he earns Dh45,000 per month and you earn Dh30,000 for doing the same job then it is significant indeed.
But the differential may not be what matters to you. It may be that you want salary parity because you feel you are just as good as he is, perhaps even better, and you deserve to be paid just as much or even more than he is paid. So there are two problems here. One is that knowing something (in this case, his salary) is not the same as being able to do anything with that knowledge. The other is that yours may be a merit-based system and your colleague is simply seen by leadership as being better than you.
Let’s deal first with what you know. You can of course tell your boss that you know you are paid less than your colleague. But this might lead to a difficult interview in which you learn, painfully, exactly why this is the case. You could ask your boss if everyone at your level is paid the same, on the grounds that you are considering asking for a salary increase. If you are told no, there are differential salaries, then your job is to get as much for yourself in salary as your organisation is prepared to give you. You don’t need to reveal that you have inside knowledge. If, however, you are told that everyone is paid the same, then you know that your organisation is not dealing fairly with you and you might make some decisions based on that understanding.
Now, if you decide to use this information to leverage a better salary for yourself you will need to explore what sort of system your organisation runs. When you do start negotiating, remember to ask lots of questions before you make your demands. You might ask what sort of figures colleagues earn, in general terms, or ask if you are already among the best paid at your level, for example. You might ask directly what your colleague earns, if he is an appropriate benchmark for you to use. In a merit-based system, you should be able to say that in your view your performance is as good as any named colleague and you should be earning a similar amount – and again, you can then ask what that colleague is earning. You won’t be told, of course, but you might gain some relevant information such as: “well, he’s a real high flyer who we think will go far …” which in turn might help you to understand that salary differential. Your task then is to find out why you are not seen as a high flyer and what perceptions of theirs or behaviours of yours you have to change to become one.
Finally, let’s deal with that bad taste in your mouth. With whom are you upset? Surely not your colleague – he is simply looking out for himself and doing the best he can in a competitive environment. Is the bad taste about your organisation? If you work in a meritocracy, it seems to me you should be aware of this and should have some sort of idea where you fit on the league table of employees. Maybe you are cross with yourself, because you have in some way been played for an innocent? Whatever the reason, you won’t improve your performance or move up that meritocracy if you harbour negative feelings about your organisation. So decide whether you want to stay and fight for a better salary or move and seek one elsewhere.
Roger Delves is the director of the Ashridge Executive Masters in Management and an adjunct professor at the Hult International Business School. He is the co-author of the book The Top 50 Management Dilemmas: Fast Solutions to Everyday Challenges. Email him at business@thenational.ae for advice on any work issues
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