Yes and this isn't your fault, no matter how much employers want you to feel. It's entirely up to a company how much they offer employees. Think about this, they could at any moment increase the pay off every employee without as single complaint from employees. They make a conscious choice to not increase the pay of more senior employees intentionally because they know the employees won't leave to get more money. You shouldn't feel bad because of choices the company makes. The friction isn't your fault or your concern. As I stated before companies tell you not to share because it benefits them, not you. No one feels bad when someone leaves the company for more money elsewhere, there are even companies that ask their employees to take a cut and they do and everyone feels okay with it because you're all in it together. The only time this friction occurs is when a company chooses to bring someone in for money they choose not to offer to another employee. You stated yourself that you became demoralized before sharing, in fact it was the company that brought it on. The company is trying to make you feel bad for sticking up for yourself in a contract negotiation, don't let them do that to you. You're worth more than that, both as a person and as an employee. The contractor makes other sacrifices including benefits and stability as part of their wages. If the company can't explain that it's on them, not you.
You're completely right. I'm glad to see that you're taking the side of the employee in instances like this. In this particular case, it wasn't me who became critically demoralised. It was another good employee who'd been there for years, who discovered he was being paid much less than everyone else. He resigned within a short time period of the group discussion.
You're totally right about individual bargaining power. As someone who's worked as a software-engineer contracting in fintech you'll find yourself at the spearhead of capitalism ( as envisioned by someone like Milton Friedman ), for better or worse.
There's nothing wrong with capitalism or companies trying to extract the best deal they can get, but I can't stand people feeling devalued. It took me longer than it should have to realize my economic and personal value. If I can help just one other person to realize that they are valuable and more than just their work then that's a success in my book. It took my getting diagnosed with a terminal disease to get me to realize what I wanted my legacy to be and I'll spend every day I've got left trying to make this world a little bit less sucky every day.
