Thread by @sara_ann_marie

Hi who wants to talk about pay equity?

So @justkelly_ok's story this week has me thinking about a pattern I have seen over and over since I started coaching newer leaders in tech and design 1:1—most of them women—at a wide range of organizations. I call it...

ROOM TO GROW 🌱

What happens: a woman gets hired into the bottom of the salary band for a level. She’s told it's for her own good:

“We want to give you lots of room to grow.”
“This way, your comp ceiling is really high!”
“You’ll start at the bottom of the band so you can really prove yourself!”

Whenever I hear about a company positioning a lower salary as being *in your benefit*—that it is somehow better for you to make less at first—my ears perk way the fuck up.

Like, y’all think we can’t do math?

If I asked if you wanted to receive $10 a month every month for the next 3 years, OR receive $8 a month for year 1, $9 a month for year 2, and $10 a month for year 3, YOU WOULD PICK THE FIRST OPTION.

But that is just the first part of ROOM TO GROW.

Here’s what happens next: the woman, who wants to “prove herself,” aka stay employed and treated like a human at work, quickly outperforms her peers at her level.

Pretty soon, she is asked to take on a leadership role.

But is she promoted? No, don’t be hasty. See, that’s a big jump from where she is! So first she has to prove herself in an interim or unofficial role.

Which means proving herself w/out the title that would get her into the right meetings and make her voice perceived as valuable.

When she somehow still performs in this lead-but-not-really role, she finally gets the official promotion. But she was at the bottom of the last salary band. So, you know, they "can’t really justify" her being bumped up beyond the bottom of the new salary band.

“That’s already a really high percentage increase,” she hears.

And lo, the bottom of the new salary band is the same as the top of the old salary band. That is, where her former peers—the ones who didn’t step up, who didn’t “prove themselves”—have sat comfortably the whole time.

But don’t worry your pretty little head! Because here at the bottom of your new band, you know what you have, ladies?

PLENTY OF ROOM TO GROW!

This is 100% anecdotal, but I am floored by how similar the language I have heard is, across companies and across roles in various design/eng/UX/content fields.

(I expect this happens for trans and nonbinary folks as well, but most of the people I've worked with are women.)

I am very curious: do men get told how delighted they should be that they're getting a low starting salary so they have ROOM TO GROW?

Sorry, here I intended to say "trans and nonbinary folks of other genders as well" and lost it when cutting down to fit. I should have noticed I lost something IMPORTANT.

TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN, TERFS CAN GTFO.

This thread is very popular and I’ve given up on replying to everyone, but I’ll try to skim things. I also have a bunch of unanswered DMs, which I’ll read and reply to unless you’re a turd.