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Employee denied raise finds his job advertised for $18,000 more than his pay: 'They told me budget was tight'

05/02/2026 21:23:00

An employee was left shocked after discovering that his company was advertising his exact role at a salary nearly $18,000 higher than what he currently earns, despite previously telling him there was no budget for a raise.

In a Reddit post titled ‘Found out my company is hiring for my exact position at $18k more than what I make’, the user shared that he has been employed as a logistics coordinator at a mid-sized distribution firm in Ohio for nearly three years. He said he started at $42,000 and was raised to $45,000 last year “after basically begging for a raise.” “They told me budget was tight and that was the best they could do,” the Redditor wrote.

However, the situation took an unexpected turn when he was helping a friend search for jobs online and looked up his company out of curiosity. To his surprise, he found his role listed with a salary range of $60,000 to $63,000. “I literally do the exact job they're advertising,” the OP said.

When he confronted his manager, the response left him even more frustrated. “He got all defensive saying ‘that’s the market rate for new hires’ and ‘we can’t adjust everyone’s salary every time we post a new position.’ Like what?? So you’re telling me someone walking in off the street with zero knowledge of our systems is worth $15K more than me who literally trained the last two people in this role?” the user wrote.

He said that his firm has saying for months that there is no budget for raises. “I have money saved up in case something like this happened but I didnt think it would actually be this bad. I'm done. Already updated my resume and im applying to every competitor in the area. If they can pay someone else 63k to do my job they can figure it out when I leave,” he wrote.

Found out my company is hiring for my exact position at $18k more than what I make
by u/PositivelyIrrespons in antiwork

Social media reactions

The post quickly drew attention, with many users sharing similar experiences and criticising workplace pay practices.

Similar thing happened at my job years ago, they told us for two years they couldn't afford any raises, then they hired a new guy to do the same job as the rest of us and we found out he was getting almost 20k more than everyone else. When we confronted them they hemmed and hawed but nothing happened until I quit and they suddenly had the cash to give me a big raise. Best thing to do is get out of there as soon as it's feasible,” shared one user.

“This is why wage comparisons are important. Last company I worked for was hiring new hires for $23/hour while there were guys there working the same exact job for $17/hour… just because they joined earlier when the pay was less. Eventually they had to scale everyone’s pay up to stop the complaints and people quitting,” commented another.

“This behavior is wide spread. Companies will not reward loyal employees and will pay new ones more even if they need to be trained for half the year,” wrote a third user.

(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)

by Hindustan Times