Fozzymandius t1_iza5r5o wrote on December 7, 2022 at 4:43 PM

Reply to comment by SurlyJackRabbit in New Washington state law will require employers to post job salary ranges by Sariel007

I got lucky that I negotiated a raise? No, I demanded it and the threat of me leaving for more money made them give me a raise. It was a real threat that I could easily follow-up on even today.

And there is no one else with my job title in this market for my company. I cover the entire PNW. Even if there was someone else they can't be sued for negotiating a raise with me.

SurlyJackRabbit t1_iza708m wrote on December 7, 2022 at 4:51 PM

Yes, you got lucky... which isnt to say that what you did doesn't occur. It's definitely more the exception than the rule. If they call your bluff then you got to call their bluff and actually take that other job, which is generally a pain in the ass... Pay transparency is good for the company, good for equity, but bad for top performers since everyone has to be treated the same and your job has a much stronger negotiating position (genereally) since they can no longer approve raises for just one person.

Fozzymandius t1_izaepbs wrote on December 7, 2022 at 5:41 PM

I won't say it was lucky because it was an ultimatum, which I was happy to enforce either way. It would be lucky if I was banking on the raise.

Pay transparency for wage brackets doesn't mean they can't approve individual raises. The wage bracket for my job is realistically $50-175k. It may be more of a problem if you're looking for a job with a small bracket of acceptable pay, but a company should be able to justify wages for top earners. You can easily tell people that they would need to demonstrate more skills and experience to earn higher amounts. Maybe you'd argue this opens them up to suits but I say a competent HR department would be able to demonstrate that pay is apportioned by actual metrics.

If it isn't then that smacks of discrimination against lower earning employees or nepotism/favoritsm.