Promotion with Less Pay and more hours

Had my review today. Good news, I am getting a promotion to Corp QE and working 50 hrs instead of 40. Then an 1800 a year raise. The very unfortunate side of this is that if I stayed where I am and just worked 45 hours a week I would be making 7K more on a hourly rate. The only change to my current job is helping another plant - which will take me an hour a week.
How do you suggest I approach this? It is totally not fair as the raise isn't even close to what the other Corp QE's make and I have just as much experience as them. The only difference is that I am a girl.......

Tori,

It is not about your gender or fairness.

It is about what you ask for and can negotiate.

Your employer has made an opening offer.

You must now respond with your counter offer.

Good luck!

John

Would your job be in jeopardy if you told them "no thanks, I'll stay where I am"?

Doug,

Let Tori make her counter offer first.

Ascertaining the "no change" outcome at this stage would not be a wise negotiating tactic.

John

OK then - How about "I would prefer to stay in the position I am in." It's not exactly a counter offer, but it's a valid response. It sounds easy to say "Make a counter offer", unfortunately not everyone is good at bargaining and more importantly the company has plans the person doesn't know about looking down from a higher level giving them the advantage.

Either way, I think the important part is a woman being put into a position and being paid less than her peers in the same position. Personally I don't think it's fair but there is another aspect - Many companies are hiring at pay levels far below what they used to. Many companies are doing the same with promotions. While they don't typically lower people's existing pay while in the same job, it's common these days for someone going into a specific position getting less money than those already in that position.

As an "Oh My" factoid: About 6 months ago I went to a GM plant for a visit. Turns out they are hiring (I saw some stuff) at US$8.5 an hour for an entry level job that used to pay US$17 to start. Add to that benefits are minimum. Things in the US have seriously changed for the worse. Even in medical - I know someone who joined a doctors group over 10 years ago. The job she got back then started out at about US$6/hr more back then compared to today.

It is not about your gender

John Broomfield said:

<snip> It is not about your gender <snip>

Click to expand...

How could you possibly know that?

Marc,

Life is not fair, but we would like it to be.

The more we practice negotiating the sale of our future contributions, attributes, skills, knowledge and ability to add value the better we get at it.

John

Re: It is not about your gender

Marc said:

How could you possibly know that?

Click to expand...

Marc,

We are paid what we accept.

John

John Broomfield said:

Doug,

Let Tori make her counter offer first.

Ascertaining the "no change" outcome at this stage would not be a wise negotiating tactic.

John

Click to expand...

John, since I have only worked for 2 companies in my entire life and been at the current one 40 years I don't know much about negotiating for a job. Thanks for pointing out an alternative point of view.

Marc said:

As an "Oh My" factoid: About 6 months ago I went to a GM plant for a visit. Turns out they are hiring (I saw some stuff) at US$8.5 an hour for an entry level job that used to pay US$17 to start. Add to that benefits are minimum. Things in the US have seriously changed for the worse. Even in medical - I know someone who joined a doctors group over 10 years ago. The job she got back then started out at about US$6/hr more back then compared to today.

Click to expand...

As sad as this is, it is also an issue of supply and demand. 10 years ago I remember companies could not hire qualified people unless they gave them a great pay and benefits package. Then the person would leave at the whiff of a better offer. Now, it has reversed. There are (typically) more people than positions so the company can negotiate from strength.

Is this fair? To the company it is. Was it fair 10 years ago? To the job seeker it was.

My advice to the OP is to decide the cost/benefit of staying at the same position, taking the new position, or some other option you have. I personally experienced something similar. When I took over as Quality Manager, I was the swing shift lead--keeping the machine shop running (having little experience in quality). I was 'due' for a raise but decided that the quality manager position was a better upgrade than getting a raise. It took about 1 year (learning curve) before I was given the next raise which far exceeded what I would have gotten in the 2x raises I would have gotten as lead. This was a gamble on my part as I was risking now vs. later. You have to look at the culture of your company. Does your company give XX% per year regardless of performance or do they give raises based on merit (do a great job and get XX% +YY% vs doing a decent job and only getting XX% if that).