Some years ago I accidentally discovered that my new boss hadn’t bothered to fill out the forms to ensure I would receive a small annual bonus. He had been busy and a bonus was not guaranteed, but I had received excellent appraisals from him and had spent much of the previous six months helping him find his feet in his new role.
I was disappointed, but I didn’t make a fuss. It was only when I overheard him mention to a colleague that he had managed to bundle the bonus from his previous job into his new salary that all became clear. It didn’t take much investigative work to discover that the bonus he received had been more than my annual salary. I suddenly -- and painfully -- realised the extent of the pay gap between us. We were the same age, had similar backgrounds and experience, yet he was taking home three times my salary.
It was the first time that I had experienced discrimination. In truth, I had never believed it existed and I had certainly never looked for it, yet there it was. I felt humiliated and angry. Thereafter I looked at my boss in a completely different light -- the knowledge that he was literally valued at three times my pay corroded my relationship with him and my employer. Eventually, I left the company because it became obvious that I was not the only woman who wasn’t being rewarded or being given the career opportunities the men enjoyed.
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