If your workplace has proven to you that new hires are paid better than long-term employees, what's stopping you from becoming a better-paid new hire at another company?
The math is quite simple with this one. If your company refuses to give you a raise, even after years of your hard work and loyalty, but would happily hire a new employee who gets more money than you do, then the only real course of action you have left is to find a new job. It's funny how companies have no issue paying more money to new hires, but refuse decent raises to retain employees. When the only option someone has to move up in their career is by finding another job, no company will manage to hold on to employees for longer than a year or two.
It's a weird cycle, one that is hard to grasp when you realize how easy it is to break it. As soon as companies release the stronghold they have on promotions and raises, they wouldn't have to keep hiring new people to replace the ones that left because they felt underappreciated. Everybody wins in this scenario, and less money is being wasted.
Yet, we all keep going in circles instead, which is exactly the case for this employee. Even after being praised for their good work, they were still denied a promotion. The company's excuse was that there was an emergency company-wide compensation freeze, but that freeze didn't stop HR from bringing in a new external hire. A quick conversation with the guy led the hardworking employee to discover that the new guy is getting $22k more than he does. All while the company still refuses to give anyone a raise.
When the employee's boss asked them to lead the new hire's onboarding, the long-term employee finally snapped. With no compensation and solid proof that finding a new job would be much more beneficial, the employee decided they had had enough. Time to update the resume, don't you think?
