Worker Exposes Job For Paying New Hires $2 More Per Hour Despite Them Having 'Zero Experience'
Never make the mistake of devaluing a loyal employee.
Andre Boukreev / Fizkes / Shutterstock As of late, it seems like workers who have shown loyalty by sticking around at their jobs for years have seemingly been getting the short end of the stick when it comes to compensation. It appears as though employers value new recruits more than those who are tried and true — or at least that’s what one man believes about the company he works for.
A Lowe's worker claimed to have learned a new hire is getting paid $2 more than him.
In a short clip uploaded to TikTok, a Lowe’s employee named Alex (@another_drunken_sailor13) wrote the caption, “When you find out the new hire with zero experience makes $2 an hour more than you do.”
Though there was no context and the video only lasted seven seconds, commenters had a lot of advice for the worker.
The first person said, “That's when i start scrolling through Indeed on the clock.” Someone added, “If you ever want a raise, 90 percent of the time it’s new job time.”
Other people shared their own experiences with one person admitting that they made more than the manager who trained him. Others intimated that this is one of the reasons companies have attempted to keep employees from discussing pay.
But more likely, this is something called ‘wage compression’.
Why are new and less-experienced employees getting paid more than those who know their work?
Wage, salary, or pay compression is what happens when new hires with little or no experience are paid the same amount or more than tenured employees. The employee who has been there for a while was hired based on the market value of the job at that time. Since then, inflation has occurred, causing salaries for new hires to increase greatly while current employees' wages are stagnated.
Another thing that is impacting salary compression is that Millennial and Gen Z employees are much more aware of their worth and aren’t willing to settle on salary.
This ‘wage inversion’ is creating an environment where newer workers have much higher perceived value to the company, leaving loyal employees disgruntled and ready to jump ship.
But workers are catching on and it’s making a big difference in how long they stay with an employer.
There is a ton of advice out there for people who want to raise their pay, including non-traditional education, lowering the compensation of executives, and even working multiple jobs at the same time.
But one of the most talked about ways to quickly increase your income is the controversial practice of job-hopping. Gone are the days when workers have undying loyalty to a company. For many of them, money talks, and the moment they are offered higher pay for the same or similar work, they tender their resignation and move on.
But while quitting job after job may be a viable way to build wealth for workers, it doesn’t solve the wage compression problem. And because of the hyperfocus on the practice of job-hopping, it can be seen as a red flag for some recruiters.
Employers should regularly review salaries within their organization to ensure pay is fair.
One way to combat wage compression is by doing the right thing. It’s not abnormal for salaries to rise along with the cost of living. Whether hiring new employees or not companies should review the market rates for all roles in their business annually to make sure their compensation aligns and that workers are paid fairly and equitably. When there are discrepancies in pay, they should be addressed right away and salaries should be adjusted.
If you make it a practice to always do the right thing, even when no one is looking, you won’t have to worry about being accused of unfair business practices, discrimination, favoritism, and you won’t have as much concern about people leaving your company based solely on the fact that they don’t trust you to look out for their best interests.
NyRee Ausler is a writer and author from Seattle, Washington. She covers issues navigating the workplace using the experience garnered over two decades of working in Human Resources and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.