Imagine working at a job for a long time mainly by yourself, but then you get some new coworkers. What would you do if you found out these coworkers were getting paid quite a bit more than you while doing less work? Would you talk to your boss about it and ask for a raise, look for a different job, or figure it’s none of your business and keep working as before?

In this story, one person who works in the control room at an ambulance company is in this exact situation. He never questioned his pay until he found out how much his coworkers were making. His boss refused to give him a raise, but he didn’t let that stop him.

Keep reading to see the creative way he finally got paid what he deserved and got his boss to change his mind.

Won’t give me a raise? I will claim all the overtime I can then.

Many years ago I worked in the control room of a private ambulance company.

I was working overnight which meant I never really saw a manager and had to do everything on my own, literally I would be the only one in the office.

Then the company won some new contracts and all of a sudden I had actual co-workers.

This doesn’t seem fair at all!

But very quickly I found out they were earning more than me, about £1000 per year difference.

And there were two of them doing about two thirds of the work I was doing alone.

So I did what anyone would do and asked if I could get a pay bump to match my new colleagues, only to be told no.

So instead I went and looked closely at my contract. Which stated I was only paid for 11 hours a night, with the expectation of an unpaid hour for the overnight approximation of lunch.

He had been working overtime without realizing it.

But you see dear reader, I had been working for a full 12 hours, because I had no one to cover me, and technically I still didn’t because different contracts and areas of operation.

So I looked up the overtime policy, and the forms. I printed off a stack and filled them in to cover my entire shift pattern, and claim for my hours lunch that I couldn’t take.

Then I made sure they were submitted every week to get my extra pay.

Finally!

Eventually they gave me my raise but I carried on claiming until they hired someone to work with me and I couldn’t claim anymore.

But the damage was done and the crappy manager that couldn’t understand why I wanted equal pay for an equal job “moved on”.

It still makes me smile to think how much money I must have cost them for trying to screw me over.

He did a good job standing up for himself and making sure he got paid fairly.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who just let clients complain after her boss refused to approve overtime.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person can relate.

It is a sad situation.

This person calls it what it is. Stealing.

I hope so!

Why do employers do this? It’s not fair to experienced employees to be paid less than new hires. It should be the opposite.

I’m glad he found a way to finally get his boss to see his point and pay him fairly.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who rejects a low contract offer and leaves the company instead.