Nearly three years at the company: extra responsibilities taken on, people trained, “exceeds expectations” on every review. Two months ago they asked their director for an eight percent adjustment to keep pace with inflation. In return they got a thirty-minute speech — the market is rough, budgets are frozen until 2027, we all have to make sacrifices. They believed it, and even felt guilty for asking.
This week they were asked to onboard the team’s new junior hire. On a screen-share, the new hire minimised a window to find a document — and there, on the desktop, was his signed offer letter. His base salary is sixteen thousand dollars higher than theirs.
Same team. Same week. The budget, it turned out, was not frozen. It had simply been spent on someone new.