Best way to ask for an equal wage
I’ve been at my first accounting job out of college for a little over a year, and performance evaluations/annual raises are coming up soon. Recently I found out that a coworker who was hired at the same time as me makes about $15k more than I do, despite having less relevant experience when we started. I came in with two accounting internships and book keeping experience, while they mainly had marketing experience.
What’s frustrating is that I consistently get more work and more responsibility than a lot of the other staff. Partners and managers regularly come directly to me for work, and whenever I finish something, I immediately get assigned more. They have also been scheduling on senior level jobs and I have noticed on certain clients they have billed me as a senior. Meanwhile, several coworkers who make more than me seem to have a lot more downtime for CPE or CPA studying. Multiple people at the firm have even commented that they prefer giving work to me over other staff because they trust the quality of my work.
On one hand, I know that’s a good sign and probably reflects well on my performance. On the other hand, it’s hard not to feel underpaid when I know someone hired alongside me is making significantly more while contributing less.
The issue is that the normal cost-of-living raise this year is only around $1,500. My mentor advised me not to bring up coworkers’ salaries / work ethic directly and instead ask for COLA plus a few thousand more based on my performance. I understand that advice professionally, but part of me feels like I should be pushing harder considering the workload and value I bring.
To add to it, a lot of coworkers are leaving because they’re finding jobs paying $20k+ more than what we currently make. The thing is, I actually like where I work and don’t necessarily want to leave. But financially, I’m barely getting by between my car payment and student loans, and I’m still living at home trying to stay afloat.
I don’t see myself in public accounting forever, but I am also afraid of the “all gen-z job hops” stereotype. I really don’t want to leave my job, but I just don’t know the best way to express my concerns where I don’t sour my relationships with the partners.