Woman Applies to Her Same Job Offering Much Higher Salary

One woman is speaking out after she saw that her company was hiring for her current job title at a much higher salary.

Kimberly Nguyen, 25, who works as a user experience writer for Citigroup, applied for the same role on LinkedIn after she noticed that her employer was looking to fill a role with her same job title but with a salary offering $32,000 to $90,000 more than what she is currently making.

She took to Twitter to call out the discrepancy, and her tweet has since garnered 12.8 million views.

My company just listed on LinkedIn a job posting for what I’m currently doing (so we’re hiring another UX writer) and now thanks to salary transparency laws, I see that they intend to pay this person $32k-$90k more than they currently pay me, so I applied.

— Kimberly Nguyen (@knguyenpoetry) March 7, 2023

Nguyen, who is based in NYC, said that she makes $85,000 a year while speaking with CNBC, and while she works on a contract basis, she claims she was told her role would turn to full-time when she was hired.

The role posted on LinkedIn offered a salary range – which is now required by the city under a new salary transparency law – of $117,200 to 175,800. However, the listing now states it is no longer accepting applications.

Nguyen said she went on to share the job posting with her coworkers, which prompted a meeting with HR.

Prior to noticing the job posting, Nguyen told the outlet she had been asking for a raise “for months” and was told Citigroup didn’t have the wherewithal to increase her salary. Additionally, a spokesperson for the brand said that it uses Photon, a contractor service, that negotiates pay rates on behalf of its contractors, to which Nguyen adds, “Citi maintains that they have no control over contractor salaries.”

“As a contractor, I’m in a pretty vulnerable position,” Nguyen told the outlet. “The full-time employee conversion is being dangled in front of me like a reward that I’m not actually sure I’m guaranteed.”

Nguyen says she is now on the job market for a position that pays $125,000.