A woman has revealed how she applied to her own job position on LinkedIn after seeing it posted on the career website with a higher salary.
On 7 March, writer Kimberly Nguyen, who is based in New York City, took to Twitter to detail the job listing that she came across. While she didn’t specify which company she worked for, she did call out the salary expectations that her current employer reportedly shared in the job posting, which she said encouraged her to apply for the position.
“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,” she wrote.
Her post comes months after salary transparency laws were officially adopted in New York City. On 1 November 2022, New York began requiring employers to disclose “a good faith salary range for every job, promotion, and transfer opportunity advertised,” according to the city’s Commission on Human Rights.
On Twitter, Nguyen also criticised her company for a number of alleged work environment failings, adding: “I don’t want to hear one more peep out of them about diversity, equity, and inclusion. I don’t wanna see any more of our C-suite execs recommend books for women’s history month. There were tangible actions they could’ve taken and they chose to perform these values. No thank you.”
She also claimed she’s been “arguing for months” with her managers about pay inequity and asking them for a higher salary.
“I have told my managers multiple times that I know I’m being underpaid,” she explained. “I have gotten the runaround, and they know they can do this right now in a tough labour market.”
In a tweet posted later the same day, Nguyen shared that she was going to be having a meeting with her managers and sarcastically said that she couldn’t wait to see how they were going to explain “what they were thinking when posting this job listing”.
“And I’m willing to bet my whole salary they’ll say: ‘There’s nothing we can do about your current pay,’” she wrote. “And I can’t wait for the gaslighting where they’re like: ‘We want you to know we appreciate you and your contributions’ while their hiring and pay practices continue to disrespect and undervalue us.”
In follow-up tweets, Nguyen proceeded to update her followers about the situation, and what her managers said about the job posting.
“They’re saying it was an internal posting and wasn’t meant for anyone to apply to externally because public companies legally have to post jobs even if it’s an internal conversion,” she wrote. “But that doesn’t solve the fact that someone internally is now still going to make $32,000 more???”
She said the conversation then turned into a discussion about potential layoffs, as she sarcastically added: “Because what better way to get people to take what they’re given and shut up than to threaten them with job loss?”
The writer later revealed that she was “officially announcing that [she’s] looking for UX writing roles”.
As of 10 March, her initial tweet has more than 12 million views, with Twitter users praising her for applying to the LinkedIn job and expressing how they could relate to her experience.
“I asked for a promotion, assuming it would come with a raise,” one person wrote. “I got the promotion… and the same two per cent yearly cost of living raise that everyone else in the org did. Nothing else. And they acted like they did me a favour.”
Another person tweeted: “I’m joining your fan club! That was a boss move!!”
A screenshot of her tweet was also shared in a popular Reddit page, Anti-Work, where users called her company’s job posting a “slap in the face”.
Nguyen has since addressed some of the viral responses to her post on Twitter, writing: “My original tweet was just me whining on my little corner of the internet. I did not expect it to resonate with so many of you. I’m really glad a dialogue is being opened. I’m glad companies are feeling more pressure, but nobody wins if we just all get each other fired.”
The Independent has contacted Nguyen for comment.
