Not sure what to do about job I just accepted and the pay

[amanda1266]

Hello everyone... To give a little background.. My work history is in accounts receivable/admin. assistant, it's what I've been doing for the last 10 years. I'm 28 years old. I accepted a position in accounts receivable that paid $15.38 an hour. After working there for only last week, I decided I absolutely hated it there and I quit. Today I went for an interview with a company who had an opening for an Administrative Assistant. The ad said it paid $12-15/hr. Well I got the job at the interview and when it came time to discuss money. He said I could have the job but asked if $12/hr would be ok. I told him I would like to have closer to the 15/hr because of my many years of experience and that I would do an excellent job in this position. He said $12 is all he could offer right now because of the market, blah, blah, blah. He said after 90 days I would get a raise of 25cents to 50 cents, and I would get another raise by the end of the year. It's a new company, family owned, and I woudl be the only admin person there. He said there would be a possibility for me to move to a executive admin position or even office manager in the future. So long story short, I accepted the job at $12/hr since I think I will LOVE it there.

 

But now that I'm home and doing some looking on the computer, these types of jobs usually START at $15/hr and go up from there. At 12/hr I would definatlely be under paid for this job. The reasons I want to take the job is because I know I would love the job and the people and that's it's a small family owned company. But I want a job where I'll not only love the job but love the pay too. I know that if I take this job, I'll keep looking for a better paying job and I don't want to have to do that.

 

So i'm comtemplating.... I'm set to start tomorrow morning.. Should I go in and talk to him about the pay first thing, If so, what should I say? Should I wait out the 90 days and then talk to him after I've had time to prove myself? Or should I just not take the job and keep looking ( I have 2 interviews set up this week for higher paying jobs but I don't think I would like them as much).

 

Thanks to anyone who can help me out.

[BeStrongBeHappy]

>>It's a new company, family owned, and I woudl be the only admin person there.

 

Small, family owned companies do frequently pay less than corporations. They are starting out and can't afford it many times. But there are other perks to small companies, so it can be a tradeoff.

 

How much do you want the job? If you really want it, i'd take it, then at the 90 days try to talk them into a $1 raise. But if he has been very clear about pay upfront and you agreed to it, there is only so much you can do. He really may not be able to offer a lot more, and may just hire someone else if you balk at the pay.

[chaosa]

I'm not sure what to tell you, but I live in a small town and work for a family owned business doing A/R, Payroll and a host of other admin duties and I get paid about $11.50/hr. I, like you, have tons of experience, but with the economy the way it is, I'm just happy my job is secure.

[JadedStar]

I doubt he has any flexibility in pay...at this point I advise you accept what they offer, or decline, but you already asked about higher pay and he said he couldn't so asking again might not give the best impression. He knows there are too many applicants who will take $12 an hour.

 

I know it doesn't make you feel better, but many people are taking less than what they are worth right now for the simple fact there are more job seekers out there than jobs. It isn't a great economy. My advice is take it and keep looking in the meantime, but dno't bring up a pay increase again since you already asked about it.

[amanda1266]

You know what really aggrevated me about the situation.. He wrote $12-15/hr in the ad when really he meant $12/max. Wonder why he did that.

[Alezia]

Hum, could you maybe trade it off with more flexibility or vacation time? Could you maybe make an extra hour or two a day to offset the 3$ per hour wage?

[Alezia]

You know what really aggrevated me about the situation.. He wrote $12-15/hr in the ad when really he meant $12/max. Wonder why he did that.

 

He might have wanted to see how desperate people where to accept the 12$/hr but might have considered paying 15$/hr elsewise?

I would mostly accept the job for now as you don't seem to have any other source of income, and keep looking. You might find you actually like the job, or maybe you will still hate it. What is great about looking when you have another job is that you can be firm saying, I am sorry but it doesn't make any financial sense for me to be working under 15$ per hour, I am sorry. They might be more tempted to give it to you than if you just say "ok".

[FreedomRing]

Yeah he gave that range, and knew he couldnt fulfill.

 

I'm in your area...is the job in DC?? There are too many other jobs in the city that would pay $15 for an AA. There's temp jobs that pay at least that amount.

 

I would keep looking.

[amanda1266]

Yeah he gave that range, and knew he couldnt fulfill.

 

I'm in your area...is the job in DC?? There are too many other jobs in the city that would pay $15 for an AA. There's temp jobs that pay at least that amount.

 

I would keep looking.

 

I'm not near DC, I'm in the north eastern part of MD, near Delaware. But yeah, all AA job pay at least $15 here too.

 

Think I should go in tomorrow morning and talk to him about it.. worst that can happen is he won't budge and then I can just leave???

[FreedomRing]

I'm not near DC, I'm in the north eastern part of MD, near Delaware. But yeah, all AA job pay at least $15 here too.

 

Think I should go in tomorrow morning and talk to him about it.. worst that can happen is he won't budge and then I can just leave???

 

Ok, if you're talking like near eastern shore and such...I don't know much about that area.

 

I think it really all depends on how much you're able to manage, with a $3 decrease in pay. Sometimes a homey, more close-knit envoirnment is worth the lesser pay? I dunno...only you would know best...

[glegend]

If its your only job then I would try the job out for 90 days and then when it comes time for a raise then you can ask for more. Maybe see if he could give you 13.50/hour or 14/hour. In the meantime you could maybe look for another job or a second job to make up the difference.

[CharlesF]

I think you made a mistake by not asking for enough. I would take another job and forget about this one.

[ConfusedDater]

You know what really aggrevated me about the situation.. He wrote $12-15/hr in the ad when really he meant $12/max. Wonder why he did that.

 

to get a response, it's called creative advertising

[JadedStar]

You know what really aggrevated me about the situation.. He wrote $12-15/hr in the ad when really he meant $12/max. Wonder why he did that.

 

What i think honestly happened, and this happens a lot, is he recycled a recurring ad and that was the old pay, BEFORE the budget slashes of the new economy. He likely didn't realize the error in the payrate. Probably just reposted the old ad as he probably used it before and wasn't really paying attention. OR - another common scenario, he posted it as he normally had that flexibility and was told by his own mgmt (or if he is the owner realized after some number crunching he couldn't pay what he did before) after the ad was posted that he had to pay the lowest range.

 

I don't think he is lying....ALL companies are paying less right now. They are going under market simply because they have to. Consumers are buying less and that shows up in the bottomline of employees paychecks and rising cost of goods and services.

 

I hate to sound so grim, but people who normally make $80k are taking jobs for $40k and even less right now. This isn't a very glamorous time for job hunters. It is really bad out there. And because highly skilled workers are taking jobs way beneath their skills it will make it even tighter for the folks who traditionally are skilled for those jobs becuase the companies are bargain shopping and taking the folks with more experience for cheap.

[CaptainPlanet]

Small business owners are snakes a lot of the time. He is probably making a lot of profit by underpaying his staff. Here is what you do. Accept the job, keep looking for another and then as soon as you are hired somewhere else leave without explanation. Leave them short staffed and hopefully it will affect the bottom line of his business. He clearly does not value your work, which is testament to how you will be treated on the job. When you're taking orders from everyone how they treat you is important to how much you will or won't enjoy the job. Take it but keep looking. Hopefully you find something very soon.

[CaptainPlanet]

 

I hate to sound so grim, but people who normally make $80k are taking jobs for $40k and even less right now. This isn't a very glamorous time for job hunters. It is really bad out there. And because highly skilled workers are taking jobs way beneath their skills it will make it even tighter for the folks who traditionally are skilled for those jobs becuase the companies are bargain shopping and taking the folks with more experience for cheap.

 

AA is not skilled work, they're not professionals, it is laboring. An AA is not responsible for revenue generation or the core functions of a business, as such they are an expense, and should not be prone to the same fluctuation in salary as revenue generating professionals. There just is not the same correlation to justify fluctuations is salary based on unrelated events. The wage is low that it will have minimum impact on the bottom line anyway. If they don't need you they sack you. Very big difference between support and revenue generators.

 

That is simply an unfair trick by the employer as Economic conditions are no excuse, the employers business is not your problem, you push for what you are worth.

 

Skilled workers in niche markets will take pay cuts in time like this because they get paid a lot more in boom times. AA is not like that and furthermore the difference between 80k and 40k is not life and death. On $15 an hour you're just struggling to get by, so that $3 an hour could mean the world. You're not in this for the returns (as someone on 80k is) you're in this for survival. You've accepted the pay so immediately start looking for another job.

 

When you are working for a living money is EVERYTHING. Basically what you just did is give your employer another $120 to add onto his salary. Find another job ASAP.

 

An example. I can guarantee the price of electricity has not plummeted just because employers are doing it 'tough'.

[JadedStar]

This has nothing to do with the price of eggs in china.

 

When a company is making cuts CP, they do NOT only look at revenue producing positions. Obviously you have not been a victim of downsizing or paycuts. When a company is not making as much money, ALL areas are looked at for trimming. It doesn't matter if you are an admin or a sales person. We have so many administrative assistants out of work right now in my city that they are taking jobs casheiring in walmart because people who USED to have admin assistants now have to do their own administrative work. And yes, many companies are paying less for ALL jobs right now then they used to.

 

And if you are a father or mother supporting three kids and maybe putting two of them thru college, try telling him that the difference between 80k and 40k is no big deal. And they earn their way up the ladder, most of them thru hard work, blood, sweat and tears and a lot of education under their belt, belittling their paycut does nothing to help the economy or people's situations right now. IT is a sad time for many people and your hatred for the middle class is not relevant to the topic.

 

You obviously have no idea what the job market looks like. People who wait on you in Home Depot for $10 an hour could very likely have been making $40k last week.

 

I also think many admin asst's would take a bit of offense to being told they are not a part of the professional workforce. I knw many who have made a career out of their work and are proud of what they do and are a part of the professional work force. Where i work and used to work they are very highly skilled members of the team. It is just a sad time right now because many companies have to drop that position due to budget cuts in many cases, or pay new positions lower wage.

[CaptainPlanet]

That doesn't justify a pay cut to an unskilled position. I know what job market is like. I knew what the job market was like long before it got into the media and everyone finally started accepting the fact. People have been doing it tough for a long time now.

 

The way your precious 'free market' is supposed to work is that when a job is underpaid the person leaves as higher pay will be offered elsewhere. It works like this, support is a cost associated with every unit that generates income.

 

So if a key worker makes $2 worth of income that $2 might require 15 cents of support of which 7 cents is paid to the AA. If the worker generates $4 of income you need 15 cents of support you need 2 AA's at 15 cents each.

 

Their salary is dictated by the number of AA's that are available in the market and the number of jobs on offer. Not at all directly related to the bottom line of a Business. If they need one, they need one, and should be paying the market rate.

 

Differently is the skilled worker. Say he or she receives 25% of income generated as a salary. In good times will make $4 worth of income, in bad times only $2. If it falls below $2 they do not need too hire a AA. If the number of AA's increases in the market the salary falls, but the point at which they need support is still the $2 mark. That is why the salary of professionals fluctuates in times like these. The salary of support should fall in a much lower proportion than core positions. So that argument of other salaries falling is useless. That is also why is tough times employers tend to retain skilled workers, and lay off support workers first of all. They're simply no longer needed.

 

So if there are other positions in the market that pay $15 the OP needs to seek on out because this talk about 'we can't afford it' it just a negotiating tactic by an employer to capitalize on the situation in the economy. The 'free market' doesn't settle unless people negotiate what they're worth. Snake like tactics by employers are distortions and will hurt the economy.

 

Furthermore that $3 an hour or $120 a week would have a profound multiplier effect as the majority of it would be spent in areas that are struggling such as retail and other sales items. Which would feed back into wall street anyway.

 

All I am saying is that an employers predicament is not your issue. You need to demand markets rates. When things get good they won't increase your pay proportionately. If other positions start at $15 an hour - you need to get out. Take this job, don't negotiate further he'll probably just sack you but leave as soon as you can get higher pay.

[JadedStar]

Their salary is dictated by the number of AA's that are available in the market and the number of jobs on offer. Not at all directly related to the bottom line of a Business. If they need one, they need one and should be paying the market rate.

 

There are MANY People who are very glad that a company will keep a job open at a lower rate than eliminate it altogether.

 

With your logic, every non revenue generating position would simply be cut vs adjusting the pay rate and even MORE people would be jobless.

 

I think many people would appreciate this not happening with the rate of jobs being slashed daily.

 

I can honestly say i would certainly take a paycut if it meant keeping my job or it being eliminated.

 

As far as the OP needing a $15 an hour job, no one here suggested that if she take the $12 hour job she stop looking. Yes, it is free enterprise, which means she can also leave that $12 job in a few weeks if another one paying more comes along.

[CaptainPlanet]

The workplace skills required to be an AA and the various barriers to entry mean that it should not be fluctuating that much, also because low end jobs tend to be less responsive in pay scale to economic fluctuations. One of the reasons is that low end workers tend to need the money to survive.

 

If it were as simple as cutting the wage there would be no increase in unemployment beyond a prescribed minimum.

 

To try and avoid this turning political I'll just say that my guess is that the low wage looks fishy. We should leave it at that and agree to disagree. I think the OP got ripped off. You think a 20% pay cut is justifiable.

 

I'd pay this employer nothing special out of my time and take this next higher paying job. I wouldn't even give notice.

[JadedStar]

CP, let's stick to the topic at hand. I am not debating the economy with you when i am knee deep in it everyday. People are trying to survive.

[Rabican]

If you KNOW you are going to keep looking, the fair thing would be to tell him that the money is an issue to you. Maybe they can up it, maybe they will offer you more of a raise sooner, or when you do prove yourself as an employee.

 

Or, maybe you would be kinder to them to not accept it, and not waste their time hiring you, then having you bail out after 5 weeks when you find something else.

 

Id probably tell them and then either try to get more, or let them hire soemone else unless I was in dire straights and needed the money NOW.

[ErikT]

If there are others willing to take the job for $12, then the market rate is $12. He did not give her a paycut. He made an employement offer. The OP gave herself the paycut.