Is this discrimination?

[gistech1978]

the guy i work with is a single father and has a child, a 6 year old.
we both have the exact same job title and i am without child.
coming up i have to be out on the road 7 nights at the end of january and beginning of february without overtime pay.
he has to be out one night, because of the kid.
he makes also has gotten a raise, because of the kid.
hes been at this job 3 months longer than me, so its not as if he has more experience.
im even the one with the degree geared towards this job, his degree is completely unrelated to our work.

i talked to my boss about it and he was basically a smartass to me.
i asked him if he thought my coworker worked harder or contributed more, he said "no he doesnt".

can an employer legally make work load & salary decisions solely on whether or not an employee has a child?

 

[TwinkleToes77]

i think when someone gets hired onto a place of business they are made aware of certain restrictions for the new employee... ie. "i have a child and therefore cant travel much" . these are normally part of the interview procedures. How much older than you is he? What he lacks in actual college degree he may make up for in years of work experience. Just because hes only been at the job 3 months longer than you doesnt mean he hasnt done the same or similiar work before.

 

[gistech1978]

Originally posted by: TwinkleToes77
i think when someone gets hired onto a place of business they are made aware of certain restrictions for the new employee... ie. "i have a child and therefore cant travel much" . these are normally part of the interview procedures. How much older than you is he? What he lacks in actual college degree he may make up for in years of work experience. Just because hes only been at the job 3 months longer than you doesnt mean he hasnt done the same or similiar work before.

hes 5 years older than me.
i dont have any problems with him, hes pretty much my only friend in this town.
its not his fault. he went to college late and graduated a semester ahead of me.
the job before this one he had for 6 months.
we do this every year and we had equal amounts of travel time last year.

 

[sygyzy]

Yes they can. There was an article about this and it creates alot of animosity in the workplace. People with kids or are expecting get alot of benefits even though it's not official. This is not a debate of whether or not it is right or wrong. I don't think it's unfair for you to feel upset about this. Most people do. If you talked to HR, maybe they can compensate you somehow. That's what some companies are doing.

 

[gistech1978]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
Yes they can. There was an article about this and it creates alot of animosity in the workplace. People with kids or are expecting get alot of benefits even though it's not official. This is not a debate of whether or not it is right or wrong. I don't think it's unfair for you to feel upset about this. Most people do. If you talked to HR, maybe they can compensate you somehow. That's what some companies are doing.

HR?
not here, this is a small govt office.
13 employees, my boss the guy i talked to is my HR and he basically said "I will note your concerns, but my mind is made up."

 

[Queasy]

First mistake made here....co-workers talking about their salaries with each other. No quicker way to build animosity in a work environment.

 

[Hammer]

tell your boss you adopted a kid.

 

[blackdogdeek]

does he do the job better than you do? not trying to say you do your job poorly, just trying to get more info.

 

[CanOWorms]

Make up a fake marriage, 3 adopted children, and 7 adopted dogs from the humane society

 

[gistech1978]

Originally posted by: blackdogdeek
does he do the job better than you do? not trying to say you do your job poorly, just trying to get more info.

from the first post:

talked to my boss about it and he was basically a smartass to me.
i asked him if he thought my coworker worked harder or contributed more, he said "no he doesnt".

 

[FoBoT]

people with families often get preferential treatment vs. single people

it probably isn't illegal

 

[crystal]

Originally posted by: gistech1978
the guy i work with is a single father and has a child, a 6 year old.
we both have the exact same job title and i am without child.
coming up i have to be out on the road 7 nights at the end of january and beginning of february without overtime pay.
he has to be out one night, because of the kid.
he makes also has gotten a raise, because of the kid.
hes been at this job 3 months longer than me, so its not as if he has more experience.
im even the one with the degree geared towards this job, his degree is completely unrelated to our work.

i talked to my boss about it and he was basically a smartass to me.
i asked him if he thought my coworker worked harder or contributed more, he said "no he doesnt".

can an employer legally make work load & salary decisions solely on whether or not an employee has a child?

If you don't like it then quit. Or if you want, get marry and have a kid. That will even the playing fields. hehe

 

[Yax]

Seems to me, he's older and just a better negotiator. You, on the other hand, are acting immature about it. You should not compare yourself to him. You can simply ask your boss for a bigger raise based on your own merits, not based on whether you felt you out performed him or not.

Kids or not isn't the real issue. He is not the issue either. Just think, if he wasn't working there would your salary be increased? NO. Its all in how good of a negotiator you are so stop whining and start negotiating with your boss. Again, leave him out of the picture when you're negotiating or you probably won't get anywhere.

 

[stormbv]

Well, he does have a child to support...are you responsible for a minor's welfare?

 

[gistech1978]

Originally posted by: stormbv
Well, he does have a child to support...are you responsible for a minor's welfare?

why should work load & salary be dependent on that and that alone?
because that IS the issue.
granted he might need the money more than i do, he has more expenses, naturally.

he has had the raise for a while now, i think at his yearly anniversary in march of 03 but ive kept my mouth shut about it until now.
if he didnt have a child, we would make the same amount of money. i guarantee it.

 

[crystal]

Originally posted by: cheapbidder01
Seems to me, he's older and just a better negotiator. You, on the other hand, are acting immature about it. You should not compare yourself to him. You can simply ask your boss for a bigger raise based on your own merits, not based on whether you felt you out performed him or not.

Kids or not isn't the real issue. He is not the issue either. Just think, if he wasn't working there would your salary be increased? NO. Its all in how good of a negotiator you are so stop whining and start negotiating with your boss. Again, leave him out of the picture when you're negotiating or you probably won't get anywhere.

All joking aside. Please re-read his post. I knew people with better education, higher technical skills, and more working experiences than those around them, but get pay less than their peer because they don't know how to sell themselves.

 

[Yax]

Originally posted by: gistech1978

Originally posted by: stormbv
Well, he does have a child to support...are you responsible for a minor's welfare?

why should work load & salary be dependent on that and that alone?
because that IS the issue.
granted he might need the money more than i do, he has more expenses, naturally.

he has had the raise for a while now, i think at his yearly anniversary in march of 03 but ive kept my mouth shut about it until now.
if he didnt have a child, we would make the same amount of money. i guarantee it.

Nope.
He'd still make more. Companies will pay you the minimum it takes to keep you. His minimum was just higher than yours. Kid or not.

 

[zixxer]

imo payrate has a lot to do with what was happening with the company when the employee was hired. I've learned to talk to my boss about raises when the company is doing well, and he's not being pushed about finances.

 

[gistech1978]

Originally posted by: cheapbidder01

Originally posted by: gistech1978

Originally posted by: stormbv
Well, he does have a child to support...are you responsible for a minor's welfare?

why should work load & salary be dependent on that and that alone?
because that IS the issue.
granted he might need the money more than i do, he has more expenses, naturally.

he has had the raise for a while now, i think at his yearly anniversary in march of 03 but ive kept my mouth shut about it until now.
if he didnt have a child, we would make the same amount of money. i guarantee it.

Nope.
He'd still make more. Companies will pay you the minimum it takes to keep you. His minimum was just higher than yours. Kid or not.

if it were a woman & he was a man and this was happening the EOCC would be all over this place.
if a salary and workload decision were based on gender, that is illegal. are you going to argue that? because we have the exact same job title.
in so many words my boss told me that is why, because i dont have a child.
and this is different from my boss saying, "well since youre a woman you have to work 7 14 hr days whereas the man only has to work 1"?
and salary isnt really the main issue, the fact is we both went through this last year and we shared the load.
we both had equal amount of travel.

well they arent going to have me very much longer, because of this & on top of some other things that have happened the past few months.
im just about at the point where i will move in with my parents until i find another job.
i can deliver pizzas and make comparable money to what im making here.