dholokov

This week at work we had a meeting where the department was told if our pay scale would be increased (not get raises, but have the same job simply be paid more). It wasn't, and part of the reason was that in after conversation with human resources departments at competing companies, it was determined that for people doing our job, we are making about the average.

Have you ever seen twenty people's faces think 'restraint of trade' at the exact same time? My co-workier J- actually asked and they told us that merely having conversations about the pay grades assigned to certain tasks in general doesn't violate any competition laws. If they are going to come out and say it to us at a formal meeting, they're probably right, I would bet that they do their homework about these things and would never admit that they've crossed any sort of line. Still, there are only about five or six companies that have employees that do my job, and I bet their conference calls sound like this:

#1: Hi, good to have you all here. Could everyone make it?
#2-#5: Yup.
#1: So, profits are up. Congratulations, everyone.
#2: Thanks;you too.
#3: You deserve it.
#1: So, should we raise our employees pay?
#2-#5:nope.
#1: Didn't think so. So, same time next year?
#2-#5: Sure. Sounds good.
#1: Great, then. Y'know, I'm really glad we have these little chats.