If Your Employee Says: “I’m Underpaid!” - Understand that it’s all relative

From our January Newsletter

How do you respond to an employee who says he or she is underpaid? Unfortunately, in this instance, using Google – which works so well for so many topics – will likely not help. Two top sites that came up on a recent search of the terms “Am I underpaid?” were (1) a link to a site entitled “Underpaid and Bullied”and (2) a blogger called the “Evil HR Lady.” Neither site answers the question to any satisfaction.

Conclusion: Pay is relative and an HR professional requires keen insight and solid comparative data in order to address such an employee statement.  And, clearly, Google cannot help in this situation.