This past summer, at the retail job that I had been working for almost 5 years, I learned that I was making less money than all the new hires. I was training them, was one of the most knowledgeable employees, and was taking on some smaller managerial roles, and yet was earning almost $2 an hour less than all of them. I started to decrease enthusiasm and effort in the work that I was doing and seriously debated quitting.
Compensation motivated this behavior because I felt like I was going above and beyond and showing that I could do more than even my job description, and yet I was getting paid significantly less than others who were putting in minimal effort. It didn’t feel like my work was appreciated or seen because I wasn’t getting compensated to match the work I was putting in.
In the moment, I felt that if I was getting paid less than the employees who didn’t put much effort in, then I should do even less than they are. If pay is a reflection of the work that we do, I was clearly doing too much.
I ended up talking with my manager and explaining what was going on, and she gave me a pay raise that was then higher than what the new hires were making to show me that she cared about my work. However, if we weren’t able to come to the solution that we had, I would’ve quit and found a job that paid me what I felt I deserved.
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