'I overheard a conversation i wasn't supposed to hear': Underpaid employee quits on the spot after discovering that the new hire below him has a higher salary

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jul 30, 2025 8:00 AM EDT

Everyone wants to know what their bosses think of them behind closed doors. You want to know if they're as happy with your work as they seem to be, if they're planning on fulfilling their promise of giving you that raise any time soon, or if they're even thinking about your well-being within the business. Unfortunately for this employee, he ended up overhearing a conversation with his boss and another employee that illuminated a significant pay discrepancy.

There had been an open position for several months at this company while the author of this story was sharing extra tasks and responsibilities with their manager. They already suspected that another employee below them on the "food chain" was getting paid the same amount as them at the very least, but had made peace with that reality given how much of a hard worker this other employee was. However, when that open position was filled, the person joining the business under the author was making, as it turns out, significantly more than the author's salary. 

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    Cheezburger Image 10535814144
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Of course, the author ended up confronting their employer about this pay discrepancy, and let's just say that the conversation did not exactly go over well. The author's boss claimed that he had to increase the salary for the position in order to find someone qualified for the role, but it seems like he never considered the possibility of paying the author more as well…

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    I'm just here to have a little bit of a rant as i don't really have anyone to talk to.
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    So the company i work for has been looking for someone to fill an open position for about 4 months now. It's for the same position as i currently have. The
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    idea being that i would get promoted once the position was filled. Currently the manager and i share the reponsibilities of the job i would be promoted to.
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    Being understaffed the both of us were absolutely swamped. I never complained. Yeah, there were some disagreements but who doesn't have those in times of stress? The pay is decent and i used to think the manager was a decent person as well.
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    The only other person that i thought was paid equal to me was our warehouse guy. Which i thought was odd as i have more responsibilities, way more
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    experience and know more about our field. But seeing the work he does and all the overtime he puts in i honestly was ok with that.
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    He's also usually the first one to come in and when needed he is the last one to go. (We stay late with him of course but this guy doesn't know when to stop.)
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    now i recently found out that the warehouse guy made a little bit more than me. That kinda stung. But again, dude works hard and put in a lot of overtime and it wasn't a huge number so i decided it wasn't a big deal. Cut to today.
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    RESIGNATION
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    I overheard a conversation i wasn't supposed to hear. We finally found someone to fill my position. problem is that the manager decided to offer him sub more money than i substantially make. The guy accepted and the manager
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    seemed to be over the moon to have a new guy aboard. Right up until the moment i confronted him. Asking him why a new hire would get a higher salary than
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    me. his reponse: "You have to buy people these days. And if you want to talk about this right now then you'll be disappointed with the end result."
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    Told him not to worry and to keep the ad for the open position up as i won't be coming in anymore. LL F . i quit.
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    I did not have anything lined up and to be honest i feel kinda dumb just leaving like that. However, i will not be disrespected like that. F him. I feel pretty confident i can get another job pretty soon anyway.
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    Ninja-Panda86. It's a phenomenon known as Wage Compression. You can look it up. But the TLDR is that companies will try
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    to keep you at the permanent wage rate of when you were hired. So if you're hired in 2018, they'll try to keep you stuck on 2018 prices.
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    Moral of it is to leave about every four years so you can get a new market wage.
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    [deleted] This is what happens when you stay at a job too long, and these days that happens pretty quick.
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workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job work i quit satisfying quitting story toxic-boss Horrible Bosses bad bosses company quitting toxic-work-environment
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