?“微信·连接智慧生活”微信公开课上海站第一季

In the complicated and dissatisfying world of employment, there have been many tips and pointers offered now and then to job seekers who want the best out of their options. It includes just about anything from benefits, healthcare, working hours, ethics, work culture and the most sensitive one, salaries.

That is what I want to touch on about today which is the salary of the newly employed and how the current employment practices and systems somehow disallow many recruits to either be paid lower than what was intended or worse, not paid adequately for the position.

Internal Inequity

Say you got called into an interview for a senior executive position with an offering (according to the ad)of a salary of $5000. You say to yourself, “I fit the description with the job experience and certificates perfectly!” and go for the interview with a 90% success rate… Until the interviewer reviewed your last withdrawn salary of just $3000 and offered not the advertised amount but instead just an increase from your current pay, perhaps $3600, at best. This raises the question about the conditions and stipulations of the current senior executives. Are they having similar salary packages or are they paid as advertised? If it is the former, how does the company disparate between the senior’s role? If the latter, why is the candidate being offered a meager 20% increase when the candidate can earn more?

Company Budgets or Cheap Labor?

In any company, budgets are important but so is the quality of the work. The problem now lies in the fact that a lot of companies often resort to “cheaper labor” to save company costs. Experienced professionals cost a hefty amount due to the expertise and skillset that they carry but because of the nature of the job, it is also widely believed that anyone can do it so long as they are trained properly. The downside? Companies will then find candidates with near-similar experiences and skills and offer a salary “bump” instead of what they are worth. The fact that most candidates do not know their actual market worth puts them in the vulnerable position of being exploited to do a senior’s work but at the same time, being paid a junior’s salary.

Age of Entrepreneurship

As of 2017, the world has evolved into being more tech-savvy. This means less and less manpower is required and more towards software, hardware and weak AI programs to do the work of many. Thanks to that, there has been a steep rise of white collars stepping out of their safe bubbles and opening their businesses and services that are either in demand (hence the rewards are better) or because of whatever skills that they do have, is worth 3 to 5 times of what they are currently paid. E.g. writing, digital marketing, graphic designing, etc.

This would mean that over time, companies will lose out on A LOT of potential skilled workforce because of this practice. It would also result to not just losing out on new and fresh blood but lose out the current ones once they realize the disparity of their pay. Its factors like these that can motivate someone to drop what they are doing now and resort to entrepreneurship because the demand is there for their skillsets.

The Big WTF

Salary inequality isn’t new and while the debate of men being paid more than women is still on-going, the debate doesn’t seem to include the inequality between people of similar roles but a difference of experience. The big question here is why are companies offering a small increase when they realize the candidate only made so much in their previous employment?

Aside from the reasons given above, one could only really know from the finance department itself. In my personal experience, the imbalanced salaries are a way of companies saving money to hypnotize the best candidates for the lowest amount possible especially if the candidates do not know their real and actual worth.

For companies, is it worth losing out the right people just to save money or out of preference? And for the candidates, you must know your worth before going into any interview because you are worth more than what you think you are. A quick Google search would be all you need to get a headstart.