She Noticed That Her Company Put Up A Job Posting For Her Exact Job, Yet They Listed The Salary At $32,000 To $90,000 More Than What She Makes, So She Applied

Emily Chan |

Mar 17, 2023

bnenin - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

In the past, employees have had difficulty gauging whether or not they were being paid fairly for the work that they do. That may be changing, though. Salary transparency is currently a hot topic of discussion among employers today.

New laws are stating that employers must disclose a clearly defined pay range in their job postings. This new requirement is meant to bridge the gaps in pay.

And as a result, companies will be more upfront about certain job roles. Job hunting is an excruciating process, so job seekers deserve to know all the details about a position before investing their time in the interviewing process.

Recently, a 25-year-old woman in New York City went viral on Twitter after noticing that the company she works for shared a job posting for her position with a much higher salary than her own.

Her story is shedding light on the importance of salary transparency and how many organizations take advantage of their employees.

Kimberly Nguyen is a user experience (UX) writer, and she came across the job posting for her role on LinkedIn. The company listed a salary that was between $32,000 and $90,000 more than what she earns now. So, of course, she applied for the job.

The next day, she revealed on Twitter that her company informed her in a meeting that the job posting was not supposed to be for external applicants. However, that did not answer her question about why the pay was significantly higher for the new UX writer.

The company ended up taking the posting down. This is not the first time that Kimberly has addressed the issues surrounding her pay at the company.

“I have also been arguing for months about the pay inequity. I have told my managers multiple times that I know I’m being underpaid. I have gotten the runaround, and they know they can do this right now in a tough labor market,” tweeted Kimberly.

bnenin – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

She also criticized the company for preaching principles such as diversity, equity, and inclusion but failing to actually put them into practice.

“I don’t want to see any more of our C-suite execs recommend books for women’s history month. There were tangible actions they could’ve taken, and they chose to perform these values. No, thank you,” wrote Kimberly.

Kimberly has announced that she is officially searching for a new job at an organization that knows her worth and will pay her what she deserves. Hopefully, she lands one soon!

My company just listed on LinkedIn a job posting for what I’m currently doing (so we’re hiring another UX writer) and now thanks to salary transparency laws, I see that they intend to pay this person $32k-$90k more than they currently pay me, so I applied.

— Kimberly Nguyen-Poet Laureate of Pay Transparency (@knguyenpoetry) March 7, 2023