Equivalent position on my team posted at higher salary - advice?
Hey managers, I'm looking for some guidance on how to navigate this situation.
I work on a team <15. Three of us are individual contributors with the same job title and roughly the same seniority. Our manager told us that we are now adding a fourth position with the same job title but slightly different duties. The low end of the new positions's salary range is 10% higher than mine--and I have been with the company for 5+ years.
My first reaction at seeing the posted salary was to feel slighted. With tight budgets last year, raises and promotions have been frozen, so inflation effectively decreased my salary. At the same time, I get that promotions and hiring are different funding pools.
I'm genuinely conflicted about my best move here. I have previously expressed interested in moving into the space with these additional duties, but our workload has been too heavy to make that happen. I'm a high performer with nothing but good reviews and deep experience. I don't see any reason why I shouldn't apply for this job, but I also don't see why my manager would be motivated to hire me for it--doing so would mean prolonging the workload crunch for the team, as they'd have to backfill my position. We have a very good relationship--I assume he would have brought it up with me if he had me in mind for the job.
Do I: 1) apply for the job; 2) make a hard press for promotion; 3) shut up and start looking elsewhere. Would appreciate any advice.