Glassdoor rejects worker's real salary because it was 'excessively below market average'

JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor

Jun 16, 2026 10:00 AM EDT

Sometimes the truth only sinks in when someone else points it out.

Have you ever been talking to someone and realized something about your life that you didn't realize before? That's what happened to the worker in this story, which they shared on the Mildly Infuriating subreddit. They thought they were being fairly compensated, but when they did some further investigation, that couldn't have been farther from the truth. We have a weird silence around talking about money in our culture. We think it's uncouth to ask people how much they're bringing in, even if we all secretly want to know. As workers, it also helps us know our worth if we know how much our coworkers are making. Knowledge is always power, even if it hurts your feelings in the moment. That's what happened to this worker when they went on a popular job website to gather a little information. When you're applying to jobs, you start to get a feel for what the market rate for certain positions is. Sure, there is a range, but you can start to tell what you should be earning for different positions. If you're being devalued at your job, you should know that. You should be able to speak up for yourself and ask for more. The person in this story, though, took a while to learn just how little they were being valued at their job. It took a pretty comical situation for that to pan out.

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via Vitaly Gariev

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Glassdoor said I was making up my salary, because it was too low when I reviewed my employer.

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Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to figure out what is really going on in your life. Have you ever been shooting the breeze with your friends, and salary comes up, and you realize you should be making a lot more money? It's a pretty common phenomenon. That's what happened to this worker, but in a pretty roundabout way. Keep scrolling to read what happened to them and see what commenters had to say about it. It's not easy out there, and this is a prime example of that.
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Commenters shared their similar stories.

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via Vitaly Gariev

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