The Pay Gap Story, Part 2

If you’re new to this series, start with the intro, read about my intentions, and then part 1.  Also see Who is the CEO of your Household and These women are not anomalies.

My HR rep had another explanation for why they didn’t have to pay me as much as the man before me—aside from devaluing my caregiving experience: 

They changed the job title and hierarchy just enough that they could say my male predecessor’s role no longer existed, and mine was an entirely new role. I was comparing apples to oranges, they told me.

One of these things is not like the other.

For context, there was a Reduction in Force where our Vice President and my peers in management under him were removed from their positions, and I was asked to lead the team by myself. 

My HR rep explained it like this,

“While you are leading the Client Success team like he was, when you took over this position, we consolidated two layers of management into one, thus eliminating a role. And unfortunately the role we eliminated was that upper level that paid more.”

Never mind that I was reporting directly to the executive team, as he was, or that I was still responsible for all the same things—just without the help of a management layer.

It didn’t matter. They had a perfectly solid legal loophole. One of many clever ways companies find to legally justify unequal pay whenever they want to. 

This was pretty disheartening—being told, essentially:

“We love you, we want you, everyone across the business is thrilled with your leadership, and your results, but we don’t technically have to pay you what this position paid when a man was in it, so we’re not going to.”

You might think this is what led to my leaving the company, but it’s not. I stayed much longer, and I suspect no employee in today’s job market has any question as to why. 

I wasn’t ready to go full-time with coaching, but the prospect of onboarding and investing in a whole new company didn’t feel right at the time either. 

So I chose to stay. 

And I found my why—so I could keep my heart in the work, and honor my integrity.

The economic system we’ve built doesn’t allow everyone to always work in a place that fully aligns with their values, or even to do work that fully lights us up.

But we can find our why, and our place to thrive (as I showed here).

My why was strong enough to keep me there longer than expected—even after I was ready to move into full-time coaching.

But it became harder to stay quiet about some of the things I was seeing. I eventually raised questions and advocated for my team on the one topic I had been specifically warned never to bring up. 

That story is coming!

I appreciate all the messages I’ve received since my last post. You’re all lovely, and I’m encouraged by how much support and understanding there is around these topics. 

I’d love to hear from you—and I will keep your messages private, as I recognize this is a sensitive topic:

How have you made peace working for a company that wasn’t fully aligned?