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Employee Makes more than me

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I manage a group of 10 people. Recently a new person was transferred to my group. In going over his file I noticed that he makes more than me.

I mentioned it to my boss and he said he would look into it.

Is this normal? SHould I insist that my salary be adjusted to be more that this new employee? How many other people have ever been in this situation?

Topic

Normal? – No!

In reply to Employee Makes more than me

Common? – Yes!

It can depend on your industry. Look at a college campus. The highest paid employees are usually the coaches. In some cases they may have three levels on management above them, that get paid less.

Or if you manage a team of experts, it is entirely possible that some of them may get paid more, because of their expertise.

Exactly

In reply to Normal? – No!

I know that when I moved from a technical specialty to management my income went down despite my salary going up because I could no longer claim overtime or pager pay.

James

Maybe the employee…

In reply to Employee Makes more than me

…is being paid normal wages and you are being underpaid with everyone else. The other possibility is he has a specialization such as CCIE. Quite possibly the employee is a crab transitioning through the company. For those of you that don’t know, a crab is someone who has been promoted to their level of incompetency and is being shifted sideways in the company; can’t be promoted higher and won’t be demoted. Forever being moved from department to department until they die or quits. Usually found in government departments.

What I’ve seen

In reply to Maybe the employee…

Incompetent managers will end up in the special projects department. There they are given an unimportant task to work on by themselves.

Well I’ve been in the situation

In reply to Employee Makes more than me

where I got paid more than the guy managing me. It was quite simple my skill set had a higher market value.

Self check first

In reply to Employee Makes more than me

What does what someone else is getting paid have to do with you or the job you do? Did you feel underpaid before you saw someone else was making more?

There are many reasons this person would/should make more than you.

Education/training/experience

If you excel in all these over the person, then you have a valid complaint. Otherwise this is just being petty.

My mother works in IT and has years and years and years of exp and a masters. Yes, she makes more than her boss does.

Get over it and do your job and worry about yourself.

You’re looking at it all wrong

In reply to Employee Makes more than me

Compensation has less to do with corporate hierarchy than you might think.

Just because you’re higher on the organizational food chain than someone else, whether than person is a member of your staff or someone else’s, is no reason for your comp to be higher than theirs. There are all kinds of factors that come into play.

For example…I have a staffer who’s been with the organization for many years. Good person, does a good job. Gets his raises every year. I recently hired someone with a lot less experience, but with some key skills. Had to make an offer that pays the new guy more than the old guy. So it goes.

This phenomenon is pretty typical in sales organizations also. The sales guys, who are on commission, make more than the managers (at least, the good ones do). It’s nothing to get upset about.

That’s right

In reply to You’re looking at it all wrong

Many the of people that work for me make more than I do…..none are paid the same.

Of course, they have to carry blackberrys & be reachable 24/7. They’re paid for being on call and 20% of their pay comes from OT.

Still others are subject matter experts and are paid accordingly

More Money…???

In reply to Employee Makes more than me

I can say its very rare but it definetly happens..Particularly MNCS which span across the globe..with the currency conversion when there is some movement it might happen…But i rather took it in a different way…instead of worryin about the check he is taking home i will make myself more competetive so my management will compensate me better..

Nothing wrong with employee getting more than manager

In reply to Employee Makes more than me

With that attitude, you better be careful about getting fired. It is an ignorant, and annoying attitude to have, and one that usually results in a firing, to think that you are suppose to always get more because you are the manager or supervisor, or director, etc.
Grow up.

Privacy

In reply to Employee Makes more than me

This raises an issue on lack of privacy. Should a boss see the subordinate’s salary?

Salary of employees should be seen only by the Finance & Accounts section. For Appraisal purposes, the boss should be aware of only the hikes/cuts.

Um no…..

In reply to Privacy

Managers get paid to manage, and one of the things they manage are budgets. The biggest item in any budget is the cost of labour. In order to appropriately manage the budget, the manager has to know the salaries. Does that mean that the manager expects more from people who are paid higher? Yes – and thats the way it should be.

I can’t imagine a manager being able to run a department without knowing the salaries.

James

What utter rubbish

In reply to Privacy

How can a manager expect to hire and manage an employee without knowing his/her salary? How can a manager even interview an prospective employee without discussing salary expectations? This has nothing to do with privacy.

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