How are salariés worked out?

I thought I was on a decent salary for my age. However it’s just transpired that my colleague is on 74K ( her starting was £60K) and my starting salary was £40K ( I’ve been there 18 months and this has increased to £46K

I was obviously really happy about this and grateful ( I am 24, nearly 25) and she is 32. She’s still only been there 3 years so I’m just wondering how on earth she got on such a high starter salary.

I have a degree and a masters, I don’t even think she has a degree! Could it be on the basis that she is 7 yrs older?

I do not understand! I don’t wanna sound super ungrateful. I have great appraisals too so I’m not sure why my salary isn’t a little bit more!

I obviously can’t mention this to my boss cos we aren’t meant to talk about salaries but what the ****??

Perhaps she's really, really, really good at her job and you're.... not???

I am very good at my job, I scored 5 ( the top) on all of my appraisal points. My question was how is your starting salary worked out as in how was she given such a large starting salary

If she was 29 when she joined then she would have been in a much stronger position than you to discuss salary expectations.

They could have found countless Masters grads with less experience so didn't need to have a higher starting point.

I was 23 when I joined - so I’m 25 in February and given I get good appraisals would it be unreasonable to discuss / ask for a potential pay rise once I’m 25? I feel like I’m in a good position too given I actually do more work than this woman although she is older!

I was 23 when I joined - so I’m 25 in February and given I get good appraisals would it be unreasonable to discuss / ask for a potential pay rise once I’m 25? I feel like I’m in a good position too given I actually do more work than this woman although she is older!

Different business do salary reviews differently, (I've always had incremental increases, even when I worked in finance), so I can't really say whether it's worth discussing. In all honesty I think you may struggle as you've said that you've been their 18 months and your salary has already gone up by 6k.

In the past I've had colleagues apply for and be offered posts elsewhere, and have then used that to leverage a salary hike as they could demonstrate they could go elsewhere for more money.

I suppose the question is are you unhappy that you are being paid below the market rate, or unhappy because your colleague used their years of experience to start from a higher salary point.

Yes I also work in finance so since I’ve been therewe’ve had yearly increases ( and also one extra whenit was the height of cost of living) I’m happy that she’s used her experience to get thatsalary of course - but at the crux of it ( forgetting ourage difference) we do exactly the same job, and Iwould argue I have a heavier workload than her. I just think that a 20K difference in starting salary ishuge!