“Competitive pay”

Translation: We are so embarrassed about how fucking little we are offering we can’t even bare to say it out loud. Maybe after 7 rounds of interviews when we feel a little more like friends we’ll be willing to let you know but only if you promise not to tell anyone.

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I’ve noticed literally every company with *actually* competitive pay will tell you RIGHT OFF THE BAT what that range is because they are PROUD OF IT.

Anyone who doesn’t? Well you fill in the blanks.

You can add "generous holiday package" to this.

When they say "competetive pay" what they actually mean is that they want to make sure that they don't outbid the competition to avoid starving them out of talent too much. It is a corporate charity thing where they train some talent for their competitors and ensure that they actually move there by not paying them enough to keep them.

It is competitive!

They’re not competing for employees, though. They’re competing with other companies for the lowest payroll costs.

I've seen "market rate" being massively different between companies. I was once told by my director that I was being rewarded for my hard work by being given a large pay rise. When I was talking to that same person about being promoted to the person above me, I asked what the market rate was. The "market rate" was £2k above what I was actually being paid. I was also the lowest paid engineer in the team, although I was the one there for the longest. That conversation made me want to go somehwere else.

The new company's "market rate" was 20% higher for the same job title when I joined. I actually have less responsibility and stress than I had before.

@Lasoloz Yup, generous as in any less and the employment offer would be unlawful. How generous.

@cmarshall10450 Changing jobs results in higher increase in income compared to staying put. I think there was a study about that.

@hardCoding oh i know. I'm now doing the same job for a 30% higher salary.

I was in the team for the longest and I was seen as the most valuable senior. All I asked for is to be paid fairly, but I was the least compensated.

@cmarshall10450 yeah it's super dumb. I interviewed for companies that paid more overall for a junior role than some other company for a senior team lead.

I understand some companies have more budget than others but that's just just insulting.

@PepeTheFrog that happened within my old company. They had to give me an expedited pay rise because they made an offer to someone in a junior role to me - who I was going to be managing - for a higher salary than I was on. Its safe to say that I was the least paid in the senior role by far even though I was the most asked for in project resourcing and there for the longest.