r/personalfinance • u/ekampp • Jul 02 '19

I received an accidental mail with all salaries for everyone in the company Employment

Hey, first time posting here. Hope this post will be ok.

This is problematic in regards to personal information discretion, but my issue is:

I realized I'm being significantly underpaid in comparison to others who do the same work as me.

I feel frustrated and upset about that fact. Not sure how to approach from here.

How would you approach the situation?

EDIT 1: Thanks for all the answers. There are many good ones in-between!

There are also a few that clearly want to see the world burn 😅

I had never expected this many replies, so please don't hold it against me for not answering each one of you.

RESULT:

First off. Again, thank you to all of you, who pitched in with your personal experiences, hardships, concerns, and advice. I have read through most of all ~2000 of them 😅

I have chosen to simply delete and bury the faulty email, and I will add a bit about being careful to not forward email-chains in our security newsletter this month instead. This way it will benefit everyone in the company to be wary of forwarding email-chains. The WHOLE chain will be forwarded.

I had a sit-down with the boss-man, and he agreed to give me a raise, and a promotion.

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u/tacos_for_algernon ​ Jul 02 '19

In certain cultures it is taboo to discuss certain topics. Salary is a taboo subject to most Americans, you generally don't even discuss it with your closest friends. Not saying it's right or wrong, it just is.

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u/molequeen ​ Jul 02 '19

I'm American so I totally understand that it is taboo, but I don't understand why?? I work in gov. though and all of our salaries are public. It just seems like it takes a lot of the "weirdness" out of the workplace as well as raise/promotion/money conversations

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u/Ratchetonater Jul 02 '19

It's taboo only because employers make it that way. By making it taboo, they can keep wages nice and low.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '19 edited Jan 11 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

so would my boss saying “I’ll give you the raise but if any other coworkers come to me asking for a raise then our deal is off” actually be illegal lol?

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u/battlet0adz ​ Jul 03 '19

No, but they’re allowed to suggest that they’d prefer you didn’t and make it sound like it might be a rule through tone.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

I'm always embarrassed to talk about salary. I worry. Maybe mine is lower because I suck at my job or something. Maybe I find out its really high and everyone hates me. It all sounds stupid as I write it, but... that's why they love to give us crippling social anxiety and no self esteem. :)

In all honesty, I do think American management has evolved over the years to try and make employees feel like they're unqualified for their jobs. Bosses bully you around and throw subtle insults at you. "You're doing fine. If you're happy just doing this for the rest of your life, I guess that's ok". Its all designed to make you think 1.) You have no other options and 2.) You should feel lucky to even have this one.

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u/unusuallylethargic ​ Jul 04 '19

Yes but in government you also make peanuts and all raises are strictly scheduled and quite small. In other words, there is no room to negotiate anything above your small scheduled raise

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u/thewindow6 Jul 03 '19

It’s considered pretty vulgar here in the UK to boast about wealth as well, but to my mind there’s a difference between shouting it to the whole company and having a conversation with your manager, who likely sets your salary and knows what you’re paid anyway.