New Hire makes considerable amount more than me
Hey yall, first time posting in this sub. This is more of a rant than anything else as I am pursuing things through my union but wanted to see if anyone else has been in a similar postion. Ive been working in the same school for 5 a half years. Heading into my 6th full year I am on step 5 out of our 9 tier contract. It used to be 13 and when they got rid of the old scale I went from 3 going to 4 to being placed at a 2 in my third year. They have explained to me that it is because they got rid of those steps so I needed to keep working my way up. I contested this cause people had been hired who had a few years experience and were placed slightly higher than me. It fell on deaf ears. This year however, a new hire that I graduated high school with (same age) was hired into the program that I work in. They have a similar background in field and basically the same amount of time in said field. She was placed on a 7 out of 9 immediately. When I found out at beginning of year I was getting into arguments with admin and was basically dismissed saying I didn't have the numbers right. Gaslighting to the extreme cause I went and checked and i did in fact have the facts right. Well, cut to the end of the year this year when we get our reasonable assurance offers. I went from 4 to 5 and she goes to an 8 from 7. All year it had been bugging me but seeing that be the case I got angry and went to my union rep. We are now working on a way to maybe potentially take action but his initial contact with admin amounted to "we think everyone is placed on the scale correctly". Now dont get me wrong, I am friends with the new hire from school and I am happy they are getting paid good money, but I have a college degree and they hadnt even had the parapro done to be qualified for the job. I am maybe looking into filing a formal grievance as this situation has caused a lot of stress and anxiety. I am just curious if anyone has any advice or experience with anything like this, or maybe even just some calming words for me. I feel like I am just used because I am one of the few staff who seems to return every year cause I truly do love working in the school.