Salary & Experience Question

Wudyaluk

 Background
Working on a project with a small design team.
The team is managed by a Senior Engineer with two Engineers working under him.

Issue
An issue has recently came about in the project team because of Engineer A is paid less than Engineer B.
On this particular project, both Engineers are responsible for the same tasks and both deliver to an equally high standard.
The issue arose when Engineer A inquired with management if there was a pay difference between them. 
As both Engineers are doing the same daily tasks Engineer A felt they should be paid the same.

Qualification & Experience
Engineer A has BEng and 4 years experience (predominantly design)
Engineer B has BEng & MSc and 6 years experience (mix of design & project/site)

What is the boards thoughts?
Does more experience warrant additional remuneration even if it isn't immediately tangible to the daily tasks?
Does additional academic qualifications warrant additional remuneration if the tasks demanded is performed to an equally high standard?

rosmoke

1. It's a bit awkward but not unheard of someone who complains that his salary it's too big, and it should be reduced (that's what I understand from your post), President Higgins has asked for less money as well.
2. Experience and education it's generally a good basis for agreeing on a salary but by all means, it's not a rule. There are incredibly rare graduates getting 100k straight after college.

Wudyaluk

rosmoke wrote: »

1. It's a bit awkward but not unheard of someone who complains that his salary it's too big, and it should be reduced (that's what I understand from your post), President Higgins has asked for less money as well.
2. Experience and education it's generally a good basis for agreeing on a salary but by all means, it's not a rule. There are incredibly rare graduates getting 100k straight after college.

Apologies, see updated post. Engineer A is being paid less than Engineer B.

NinjaTruncs

It's not unreasonable to expect someone with more experience to be getting paid more. Put it this is way you both started in the job out of college but he started two years earlier he'd have two pay raises under his belt compared to you. It
really depends how much more, 5%-10% probably is fair enough.

CatFromHue

I dunno if this is a theoretical situation or not but I'd be shocked if my employer discussed my salary with a colleague.

I also would have thought if someone has more experience and more qualifications they would get paid more.

Wudyaluk

CatFromHue wrote: »

I dunno if this is a theoretical situation or not but I'd be shocked if my employer discussed my salary with a colleague.

I also would have thought if someone has more experience and more qualifications they would get paid more.

Not sure if actual figures were disclosed just that one was more than the other.
I can understand Engineer A's argument, that if you are doing the same tasks day to day you should be paid the same. 

However on the other hand, experience is a resource and just because as you may not be currently utilising the experience at a particular moment in time doesn't mean you won't in future. 

In theory, the more experience you have the more opportunities there will be to utilise it and as such this should be reflected in the level of remuneration.

Turbulent Bill

In principle it should be equal pay for equal work, but reality is different. Salary is really just a reflection of your value to the company, assuming the employee has pushed for the most they can get. It's the company's perogative how the employee is used. They can decide to have more junior people doing more senior roles and vice versa - it's their money.

That said, any switched-on employer would see the discrepancy between A and B for the same output and act accordingly, given that A is aware of it and will presumably walk if it isn't resolved. For example, a bonus for A for the duration of the project.

Experience and qualifications are only indicators of whether someone might be able to do a job in the future. If they're already doing that job successfully then what's on paper is a lot less relevant.

thebsharp

A different aspect to this, what is the Client being charged for time spent by Engineer A vs Engineer B?

Engineer B sounds like they may fall into a 'senior engineer' category and could command a higher charge out rate. Naturally if your employer can charge more for your time then you should expect to be paid some part of that figure. It's your experience that allows this.

godtabh

Why would Engineer A be paid the same? Just because there are working on this project doenst mean they wont be work on different projects.

The client is likely been charged a set fee and if they arent the hourly charge out rate is nothing to to do with engineer a or b. Mine is twice my actually hourly rate. Thats how companies make money.

Move on. Do a good job. Keep doing a good job and the role will be reversed when you working on a different project with engineer c

Frogeye

Are they same grade of eng? Even in the same grade there can be salary band so they may have the same job description and still get different salary. Especially in multinationals..the are morelikely ot have a grade systems

In smaller companies it can depend: when they applied for the role perhaps they neg a higher starting salary? Perhaps B was on a higher salary in his previous employer and this has fed through to his salary with his current employer.... They may have had to offer him more to get him Perhaps they have both performed differently and B has been rewarded more than A.

Employer shouldn't disclose peoples salary in any case.

Frogeye

Wudyaluk

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses.
Re:  Are they same grade of eng?
[font=Open Sans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Same title but the company doesn't use any gradation within the title.[/font]
[font=Open Sans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I think the contention has largely been brought about by the lack of transparency, which is entirely the prerogative of the company but probably makes it more difficult to demonstrate reasoning behind pay levels.[/font]
[font=Open Sans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The issue has now been resolved. Management have increased salary of Engineer A. While still not equal to Engineer B it has reduced the difference.[/font]