Picture this: You’re scrolling through LinkedIn and notice a job posting for the same role you’re doing now, as a contractor — and the job post says it pays $32,000 to $90,000 more than you make. That’s apparently what happened to Kimberly Nguyen, a UX (user experience) writer in New York City, who has been working at Citibank
C,
-4.10%
as a contractor through the U.K.-based I.T. services and consulting company Photon for the past six months. New York salary-transparency laws dictate that employers must provide the salary range for an open position. And that’s how Nguyen, who earns $85,000 a year in her role as a contract worker, learned that Citi was offering $117,200 to $175,800 a year for a UX copywriter staff position doing the same job she is currently doing as a contractor.
It was an unpleasant surprise. “I was just really upset that the pay discrepancy was so high,” Nguyen, 25, told MarketWatch over email. “But I was also really grateful that salary-transparency laws allowed me to see that information, because it showed me that I wasn’t really being valued.” It should be noted that the Citi position advertised on Linkedin is for a full-time UX copywriter with five to eight years of experience, a spokesperson for Citi told MarketWatch, and Nguyen is one of 90 Photon employees who are currently providing services to Citi under contract for a project. While the banking giant pays Photon a market-competitive rate for its services, Photon is responsible for negotiating the contractors’ pay rates. Photon was no immediately available for comment.
…