Re: Posted Pay Ranges & Government Jobs

[eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com]

bounce-techwr-l-106467 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com wrote on 12/01/2004 04:54:45 PM:
> they like to hire at the middle or under to
> allow headroom for economic advancement, but claimed they do try to be 
> "competitive."

I'd like to raise the BS flag on this one. The only reason they like to 
hire at or below mid-range is because they want to pay as little as 
possible. They WANT it to be a little below mid-range because they want to 
reduce their mean pay. They don't offer too far below mean pay because 
they could never justify trying to hire you and telling you that you're 
below "average" for the position. The only way you should accept such a 
brazen and obvious obfuscation is if they'll provide exact criteria for 
advancing up the pay ladder.

Explain to them that you prefer your remuneration to be in the form of 
cold hard cash and not meaningless cost of living increases that stand no 
chance of ever moving you to the top of pay scale. Or see if they can keep 
a straight face defending their "less is more" position when you thank 
them for their concern about your happiness by paying you less but you'd 
be quite content to suffer with the burden of a higher salary.

This is what happens when you have a conflict between union or corporate 
job posting requirements and the realities of the job market and hiring 
negotiations. If you want to truly negotiate, you can't reveal your range. 
Buyer starts below bottom, seller starts above top, if negotiations go 
well buyer offers over sellers next offer (or seller offers below buyers 
next offer) and both are happy. Knowing the buyer's (the employer's) top 
price just means that every dollar below top is a knowing gift from the 
potential employee to the employer.

Now, in all fairness the current budget may not be able to support a hire 
at the top range of the scale. Their current pay scale may also reflect 
different market forces when employees could demand higher wages. But, if 
that's the case they have a lot of explaining to do with respect to how 
they'll keep you motivated on the job and how much performance they expect 
from you. If their offer is lower mid-range, but competitive, does that 
mean you can expect favourable performance reviews from lower mid-range, 
but competitive, effort? How will they reward you if you put in long hours 
and/or superior performance compared to others in the department when you 
know that you are being paid less than a good number of the other 
employees in the same bracket? If the scale is a result of different 
market forces, what's the timeline/formula for the lower paid employees to 
catch up to the earnings of the higher paid employees? And, that's the 
same formula you'll be banking on if market conditions improve down the 
road and your previously mid range of scale starts to fall back to lower 
end of scale. No matter what the formulas, keep in mind that such systems 
are designed to get everyone to mid-range of scale and you'll undoubtedly 
never rise above the range of the scale as you were hired in. (But, you 
can delude yourself into happiness every year because you get a raise.)

I'm not trying to be incendiary or confrontational, but these are the cold 
hard facts.

I suppose this is one of those messages that should have been made 
anonymously. Oh well, I'll risk it.

Eric L. Dunn
Senior Technical Writer

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