US Woman Reapplies To Her Own Job After Company Posts Ad For Same Position With Higher Salary

A woman in New York City is going viral for applying again to the same job after realising her company has listed a significantly higher salary for the same role on LinkedIn due to a new salary transparency law. According to a report in CNBC, 25-year-old Kimberly Nguyen presently holds the position of UX writer on a contract basis for Citigroup. She noticed that her employer posted a job on LinkedIn for the same role and realised that the firm was offering between $32,000 (Rs 26 lakh) and $90,000 (Rs 74 lakh) more than what she currently earns in a similar position.

"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," she said on Twitter.

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 (@knguyenpoetry) March 7, 2023

Speaking to CNBC, Ms Nguyen said that she earns $85,000 (Rs 64 lakh) a year as a contractor and was informed when she was hired that the position would be changed to a full-time one. The full-time UX position at Citi, which calls for five to eight years of expertise, is advertised on LinkedIn as paying between $117,200 (Rs 96.4 lakh) and $175,800 annually (Rs 1.4 crore). The company is no longer accepting applications, according to the job post. 

A Citi spokesperson told CNBC that Photon, a contractor service, negotiates an individual's pay, and Citi pays them a market-competitive rate for their services. The Citi representative also added that since mid-October, the business has included compensation ranges on all US job postings. When the NYC law took effect in November, the firm received criticism for offering certain positions with a salary range of $0 to $2 million.

Ms Nguyen added on Twitter, "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."

She also said that after discovering the job posting on Tuesday, she shared the link with her fellow UX writers in a group chat, which sparked an emergency HR meeting. She was told by the company that "Citi maintains that they have no control over contractor salaries."

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She told the outlet, "As a contractor, I'm in a pretty vulnerable position. The full-time employee conversion is being dangled in front of me like a reward that I'm not actually sure I'm guaranteed."

Ms Nguyen concluded her Twitter thread by mentioning that she is currently looking for a new UX writing position, either remotely or in New York. Given her skill set and the market, she expects to earn upwards of $125,000 (approx Rs 1 crore). She has written several books and is a poet as well.

She claims that the new salary disclosure legislation has "been life-changing. I don't apply to positions with low advertised salaries."