Dilemma
If you find out that a colleague with similar abilities, tasks and experience earns a lot more than you, it can make you feel undervalued and demotivated. How can you best deal with such a situation?
Collect information
Karin Oosterveld, team manager of the legal team at trade union De Unie, always advises employees with questions about salary to first investigate the reasons for the difference in pay. “Situations that seem the same are never completely the same. Perhaps your colleague has a slightly different range of tasks, or certain work experience that you do not have,” says Oosterveld, who recommends starting a conversation with several colleagues in which you can ask them how their current salary was determined.
Also Jasmijn Oonk, who provides advice as a videographer work and entrepreneurshippoints out the importance of gathering information about the reasons behind the pay difference: “Maybe your colleague simply negotiated better. A salary negotiation, especially with an entry-level salary, can really make a difference as to why you earn less.”
People who started more recently can also get more, simply because the market has changed, says Oonk. “If you want to know what a competitive salary is, you can always look at what is offered in vacancies for comparable positions.”
Talking to colleagues about your salary is not only useful for you as an individual, but also for your colleagues. What someone earns is still often surrounded by taboos. That can suit employers, Oonk knows. “If colleagues do not know what each other earns, such conversations will not get off the ground.”
It leads to what American organizational psychologist David Burkus calls “information asymmetry.” If one party (the employer) has much more information than the other (the employee), this creates an uneven playing field in negotiations, he explains in a TED talk.
That is why it is important for employees to remove the taboo from the discussion about pay. “Openness is the only way to achieve honesty,” says Burkus. It may feel uncomfortable, but Burkus says it’s less uncomfortable than having to constantly wonder if you’re getting less than you deserve. This openness also makes it easier, for example, to address and close the pay gap between men and women.
Once you’ve gathered as much information as possible, the next step is to address your dissatisfaction. As a rule, this is best done with your manager, provided you have a good relationship with him. “These are not easy conversations, but if you have prepared well you can at least make it clear why you think you are worth the same or more than your current salary,” says videographer Jasmijn Oonk.
In many larger organizations, employment conditions are a matter for the HR department. But then it can also help to talk to your manager first. He knows best what kind of development you have gone through and may be able to put in a good word for you, says Oonk.
Be subtle
It is important to choose a good moment to start talking about a salary increase, says Karin Oosterveld of De Unie. “If you know that your manager is not feeling well, it is better to wait a while before having such a conversation. And if you have just received a good assessment, that is of course a good time to raise it.”
The way you conduct that conversation is also important, Oosterveld knows. “It’s best to address this subtly, rather than getting straight to the point and saying: my colleague gets paid more, that’s not possible! If you make it positive, it is easier to get that person on board than if you say: you as an organization are doing something wrong.”
In any case, it is always useful to start the conversation, says videographer Oonk, even if you do not immediately get what you think you are worth: “Ask what it takes to get that salary increase, then you can take that with you in a subsequent conversation. It is important to emphasize that explanation, so you can come back to it later.”
Oosterveld also always recommends starting a conversation. “If an employer does not immediately go along with you, he knows: this is a really important subject for him. And if they say that nothing can be done about the salary, perhaps they can see if something can be done about other secondary employment conditions.”
If you can’t quite figure it out, any next steps will depend on how satisfied you are with the rest of your work. In Oonk’s words: “Do I think all other circumstances are worth staying here, or am I going to look at the neighbors where I can get what I think I am worth? It may be a bit of a GenZ approach, but those are the options you have.”
So
Information is crucial for successful salary negotiations. If you think you deserve a higher salary, it’s important to find out what colleagues get paid and how they got it. Always start the conversation and try to choose the right moment and the right tone. If you make it subtle and can show what you have achieved, you have the best chance of getting what you want. If you start waving the finger, it can actually be counterproductive.