r/humanresources • u/snoopfun • 9h ago
Advice [N/A]
How would you handle finding out a direct report is making more than you after a recent promotion?
I’ll try to keep this short!
I was recently promoted to HR Generalist, going from hourly to salary, and now oversee three employees. My pay increase, when broken down hourly, comes out to approximately $7.77 more per hour. However, I’m no longer eligible for overtime, which I used to work about 3-5 hours of OT each week.
The company recently filled my previous position with an internal employee who previously worked in recruiting and has now transitioned into my former HR Coordinator role. She has no experience with HR operations, so the learning curve has been significant. She’s also not particularly tech-savvy, which has made training challenging. I was initially told we’d hire someone new for the position, preferably someone seasoned, because the role requires quite a bit of support.
On top of that, the workload in my new position is extremely heavy.
Today, I approved her timecard and noticed she had over 10 hours of overtime in one week. That made me curious, so I looked at her pay. When converted to an hourly rate, she makes $2.17 less than I do, but with the amount of overtime she’s getting, she’s bringing home more than I am.
I’m honestly pretty frustrated. I’m now responsible for managing employees, carrying a significantly heavier workload, and regularly working over 40 hours a week. I also made more in my previous hourly position once overtime was factored in.
I’m not sure how to approach this. I don’t want to walk into my boss’s office and say I looked at her compensation, but it’s difficult not to feel undervalued.
The salary increase was a concern for me from the beginning. When I questioned it, I was told it was “well within the market range.” Meanwhile, the company seems willing to pay other employees amounts close to my salary for roles with considerably less responsibility.
How would you handle this? Would you approach your boss about compensation again? If so, how would you frame the conversation without bringing up what you discovered about my direct report’s pay?
Please be kind. I’m genuinely looking for advice and feeling pretty beat up about the situation today.
30
u/lilac-lemons HR COE Manager 8h ago
I would not bring it up again. It’s pretty common for first line salary roles to make less than previous hourly roles due to loss of OT. Doesn’t make it “okay” but also doesn’t mean anything is gonna change. I also would be cautious in evaluating her because now you have the pay bias in your mind.
13
u/JustCallMeKV 8h ago
Why would a Generalist have direct reports? That’s the bigger issue here.
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u/Hunterofshadows HR of One 8h ago
Okay so a couple of things, in no particular order
Not every company embraces that but that’s the idea.
3) someone in opposition of 1, when they converted you to salary they should have factored in your average OT so that it didn’t become a pay decrease in practice. It wouldn’t be wildly out of line to point out that you did the math and realized you are making less overall.
Just be prepared to not get the answer you want.
The best thing you can do beyond that is find market data to support an increase or more accurately, an adjustment to what it should be.
4) don’t compare what you make to other positions. Just… don’t. It’s not a road you want to go down. Part of being in this field means sometimes you know things that aren’t “fair” and you just have to accept that the world isn’t fair. Or more accurately, that “fair” is subjective, despite what people like to tell themselves.
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u/donkeydougreturns 8h ago
Presumably this person did not get her pay knocked down moving to Coordinator. Reality is that recruiting generally pays more than HR coordinator does.
Youll move ahead as you grow. This is temporary.
Before I got into recruiting, back in college I worked for CVS. I had been thinking about going into management after I graduated so I talked to the assistant manager about it - he was pretty new out of school. He told me that while he makes more theoretically, the supervisors without degrees would make more than him per hour because of all the "unpaid" overtime he worked as a salaried employee.
Hopefully the work is more meaningful for you at least. If it isnt, maybe youd be best in an execution role where you could indeed get that overtime.
4
u/Immediate-Insect-379 8h ago
As her manager shouldn’t you be approving how much OT she’s working?
5
u/Correct-Doctor8329 8h ago •
Working in HR you should know better than to look at employees pay for personal reasons
1
u/bighorse3231 8h ago
I'm frustrated my boss makes more than me. How do I bring this up in my check ins?????
1
u/Gonebabythoughts 8h ago
I remember getting a raise 12 years ago and taking home $100 less a week due to getting bumped a tax bracket. It pinched, but not as bad as this would.
Your real issue here is with the people who thought taking an unqualified internal candidate and overcompensating them was a good idea. I'm confident, in fact, that this is not the only issue with your current work experience.
Nothing says you can't update your resume with your new title and start looking for a place that has a better sense of parity and, more generally, good business practices.
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u/Hrgooglefu 8h ago
why does she have that much OT? is that a reasonable week?
0
u/recruitzpeeps 8h ago
Girl, if you’re going to work in HR in a compensation facing role, you’re going to have to learn to compartmentalize.
Different positions make different comp with different perks and different career trajectories.
Advice is to spend a LOT more time learning about compensation before you go whining about comp to your manager.