Dear HRinsidr, Our Best Analyst Just Saw What We’d Pay Her Replacement

Dear HRinsidr,

‘I’m the HR manager at a logistics company of about 900 people. Once our state’s pay transparency law took effect, we started putting ranges on every posting. Last week we posted an opening for a senior analyst at $82,000 to $98,000.

“Dana” has been a senior analyst on that same team for six years and makes $76,000. She found the posting on LinkedIn, sent the screenshot to her manager and to me, and wrote one line: “Help me understand this.”

Her manager wants to tell her the range reflects what the market demands for outside hires and that her pay is reviewed in the normal cycle, which is in April. Finance has already said there’s no money for off-cycle adjustments. I’m fairly sure at least two other analysts have seen the posting too, though neither has said anything yet.

What do I say to Dana this week, and what do I say to leadership?

– Up a Creek

Definitely don’t go with what her manager wants to say. That will only make this worse. When Dana hears that the range reflects what the market demands for outside hires, what she hears is that the company would pay a stranger at least $82,000 to do the job she has done for six years at $76,000, and that her fastest route to market rate is to leave and come back as one. Pointing her to the April cycle on top of that tells her you know the gap is real and nobody plans to look at it for months.

It also means you can’t simply explain the range and where she falls in it, because she isn’t in it. She’s $6,000 below the floor you posted for her own job, and everything you say this week, to her and to leadership, has to start from that.

Reply to her email the same day with something short: “Thanks for sending this. You’re right to ask, and I’d rather answer it properly in person than over email. Can we meet early next week?” Don’t explain her pay in writing yet. I’ll get to why below. When you meet, say what’s true: “You’ve been a senior analyst here for six years, and the range we just posted starts above what you make. I’m not going to give you a market-rate explanation, because you deserve a real answer. I’ve taken pay for everyone in this role to leadership, and I’ll come back to you by [date] with what we’re doing.” Commit to a date for that answer, but not to a number you don’t control.

Before meeting with Dana, go to leadership with numbers. Pull every senior analyst’s pay against the new range, since Dana may not be the only one below $82,000, and assume the two analysts who’ve seen the posting and said nothing have done the math. Then put the cost of bringing everyone up to the floor ($6,000 a year in Dana’s case) next to what the company already decided to spend for the open position: up to $98,000 for one new hire, plus the costs to recruit and train them. Finance has said there’s no money for off-cycle adjustments, so leadership should hear plainly that if Dana, or one of the other senior analysts, leaves, they’ll be filling two seats at the new rate.

Review all of this with your employment attorney before you go to leadership, and before anyone puts an explanation of Dana’s pay in writing. A woman six years into a role, paid less than what you now advertise to new hires, is the kind of situation that turns into a pay equity claim if the analysts paid more than her, or the person you hire for this opening, are men, and whatever you tell her now would become part of that record. A pay equity review run through counsel can help keep the analysis privileged while you fix what it finds. Tell her manager, too, that Dana did nothing wrong by sharing the posting: most private-sector employees who aren’t supervisors have a federally protected right to discuss their pay, and anything that sounds like a reprimand for raising it creates a second problem on top of the first.

When you go back to her on the date you promised, give her the answer either way. If leadership approves an adjustment, tell her the amount and when it takes effect. If they don’t, tell her that, what will happen in April, and what you’ll do if April doesn’t close the gap. She’ll stay a lot longer with a no that comes with a reason and a plan than she will after being told the market explains it.

– Wendy R. Dailey, PHR

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After spending years helping people navigate careers and opportunities, Wendy Dailey discovered a passion for writing about work, leadership, and the human side of business. Drawing on her background in recruiting and relationship-building, she creates engaging, people-focused content that explores the conversations, challenges, and stories shaping today’s workplace.

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