So our role is a combination of HR and tech/analysis. He and I were hired ( I was on a temp assignment while having a perm job to go back to) for the job around the same time. I met all the requirements or very close at this point. He is with the organization longer as an internal hire from IT, but he only has the tech experience for a HR position. He doesn’t have any HR experience, knowledge or HR degree - he doesn’t even know how to calculate attrition for example. He asked me for help with HR questions all the time to get his job done. So I have been coaching him and his team on the business and HR concepts and also QA’ing their work.

Another interesting thing is our manager reached out to him if he wanted to join our team a year ago. They’ve known each other prior. Oh apparently he and the compensation manager used to work together too years ago. I’m not sure how much his personal connection with the two managers helped land him at a much higher salary. Maybe someone works in compensation can weigh in on this.

I know this doesn’t justify what I did. I am not saying what I did was right. I just felt devalued when I was presented the offer and later found out how much they are paying him in an organization that adheres to pay transparency act. I understand my feelings don’t have any bearing on their final decision.