Studio Solanine

All right. It's time for your promised rant.

I work for a rather horrible law firm. They are horrible because the work they do actively harms people, and they treat their employees terribly. Recently, I received a bit of a promotion in this horrible company. It is a huge step up for me personally, simply because I am out of a hostile environment and the work is more interesting.

However, I found out something that rather disturbs and bothers me. The person who did this job before me, someone they hired off the street and who was absolutely not competent, was paid more than me. This is someone who was so bad at his job that he broke incredibly expensive equipment when he decided that hitting it was the way to go. When they promoted me they knew I could do the job and do it well, because I had done much of it before, in addition to my other duties. I was offered no pay increase. I cannot fathom why.

It's not so much the money that bothers me as the unfairness of it. I have long held that being focused on money is for suckers, people who need something to serve as a stand-in for their self esteem. But it seems strange to me that they would pay different people different amounts for doing the same job. I am reluctant to say it is sexism as I always have the problem of seeing people as they ought to be. But what else could it be? The only difference between us, aside from general competency, was our sex. I have been thinking about this since I found out how much my predecessor was paid and it really bothers me.

All I can say is, they had damned well better pay me at least as much as they paid him when the next raise cycle comes around. If they don't, then I will know for sure that it is sexism and I will complain. Loudly.

I guess I should start reading about these new fair pay laws now, so I know about them. I have been remiss.