I just found out a subordinate earns 26% more than me, what do I do?

3 points by Pietbull 7 years ago | 8 comments

Hi HN

I work at a famous global tech corporate. We have a employee career mentor program, where mentors are responsible for managing performance reviews and communicate salary outcomes. As fate would have it, my newly assigned "mentee" have been earning 30% more than me last year and 26% higher than me this year. I'm at manager level and this person at consultant level. I'm a bit stuck in terms of what my attitude should be to get it fixed. What should I do? What's the right approach?

jsty 7 years ago |

I've always found the idea that the manager must earn more than the managed a little odd. Fundamentally, those are completely different jobs. It's not like the rather more insidious version where "Software Engineer level 4" is making a higher base than "Software Engineer level 5" because discrimination / nepotism / negotiation skills or lack thereof / ...

Consider e.g. a bank or hedge fund - it's perfectly imaginable that some of the star traders earn multiples of their manager.

Pietbull 7 years ago | |

Fair point, in my case we're on exactly the same career track/speciality unfortunately.

NonEUCitizen 7 years ago |

Who do you think earns more: An actress, or the actress' manager? A basketball player, or the basketball player's coach? A boxer, or the boxer's manager?

Is it easier for the consultant to leave for another company and get a new manager, or for you to hire another person at his/her level to be your "subordinate"?

Market forces are at play here -- the productive members of society rightfully make more than people who go to meetings.

greenyoda 7 years ago | |

An actor's or boxer's manager is not their boss - they're essentially a contract negotiating agent who is hired by the actor or boxer. So comparing this job to the job of a supervisor of a group of professional workers isn't really valid.

Also, from my experience as both a developer and a manager of developers, there are many fewer people who have the skills to effectively manage a group of developers than there are developers (and they're usually already senior developers before they become managers). Thus, I'd expect that good managers would be harder to find and would thus deserve a market premium in their salaries. Also, when I was a manager, I had a more stressful job (being responsible for the work of many people) and worked longer hours than when I was a developer.

When I became a manager, I had the same experience: I found out that a couple of my reports had higher salaries than I did. I asked for, and received (without argument) a big raise.

shyn3 7 years ago |

You failed to negotiate an adequate salary when you got the job. Either apply elsewhere or ask for a raise. If you ask for a raise and get denied, you will have to quit.

Edit: For anyone reading, don't tell your coworkers your salary, no matter how close you are, it causes resentment.

gotorazor 7 years ago |

Is a component of that due to either a performance bonus or commission. Or are you talking about straight salary?

Pietbull 7 years ago | |

Straight salary, base pay.

icedchai 7 years ago |

Ask for a raise or leave. You're getting screwed.