More than half of British workers have never asked their boss for a pay rise, a survey has found.
Only 46 per cent of people have had a conversation with their employer about increasing their pay – despite 54 per cent feeling they are underpaid.
And it seems this reluctance is mainly down to our squeamishness over talking about money.
The poll of 2,000 workers revealed that a fifth of employees dread having to talk about pay or contracts – with 21 per cent admitting they are too nervous to ask for a pay review.
And one in five fear losing their job, according to the research by employment law specialists Slater & Gordon.
Others said they felt uncomfortable talking about money, thought it would make them appear ungrateful, or worried it would damage their relationship with their boss.
Deborah Casale, from Slater & Gordon, said: ‘A lot of people don’t have a trade union to fight their corner any more so they can easily find themselves being taken advantage of in the workplace.
'This research revealed that many people thought they were underpaid or paid less than colleagues who were doing the same role but felt too scared to have a conversation with their employer about their pay.
'Often people prefer not to talk about money and to be discreet about how much they earn but this can often leave them at a real disadvantage.
'We deal with a lot of cases every year where employees know they have been treated differently to colleagues with no justification as to why that decision has been taken.
'It’s key for people to feel that they can address issues around pay and benefits openly with their manager to prevent these discrepancies in treatment happening.'
The research identified a trend among employees to expect their managers to pay them a fair salary without them needing to ask or negotiate.
A third said they knew that their colleagues who did the same job as them but got paid more money.
A fifth said they would always assume that their managers treated them and their colleagues equally and only a quarter had ever instigated a conversation with colleagues on salary to gauge how fairly they were being paid.
Of those that knew their colleagues were paid more for doing the same job, just 36 per cent felt confident enough to raise the issues with their manager.
Thirteen per cent admitted they had lost their employment contract while 15 per cent said they had never been given one.
A quarter didn’t know if there were restrictive covenants in their contract and 21 per cent said they had no idea what their notice period was.
Of those respondents that were paid a bonus or commission as part of their remuneration package, seventy per cent said the process of deciding how much they would be paid was unfair.
据英国《每日邮报》报道，一项调查发现英国过半数员工从来没有跟老板谈过加薪。
只有46%的人曾跟老板提过加薪的要求——尽管认为自己薪酬偏低的人高达54%。
而这种不愿谈加薪的现象似乎主要是因为我们对钱这个话题唯恐避之不及。
这一调查涵盖了2000名英国员工，结果显示有1/5的员工都害怕谈论薪酬或合同——21%的受访者承认他们紧张得根本就讲不出像调薪这样的要求。
据此调查，还有1/5的人是害怕因此丢了工作。做这项调查的是劳工法律师事务所斯莱特&戈登（Slater & Gordon）。
其他人则表示自己感觉一谈钱就很不自在，好像这样会显得他们忘恩负义，也有人只是单纯担心这样会破坏自己和老板的关系。
斯莱特&戈登的黛博拉·卡萨莱（Deborah Casale）说道：“现在许多员工都没有工会来为他们争取权益了，这样他们在职场上就很容易被人家占便宜。”
“这项调查显示，许多人都觉得自己薪资偏低或者干同样的活儿却比别人拿得少，但大多数人都不敢跟老板开口说要涨工资。
人们通常更愿意对钱闭口不谈甚至对自己的薪资水平守口如瓶，但这样很可能让他们处于不利的地位。
我们每年都要处理好多这样的案件，员工知道自己的待遇比同事低，但从没有向老板质疑过为什么会这样。
让人们觉得他们可以开诚布公地跟上司谈薪酬和福利才是消除这些不公待遇的关键。”
调查结果显示了当下的一种趋势：员工都期望自己不用开口，上司就能给他们公平的待遇。
有1/3的人表示他们知道干同样工作的同事比自己工资高。
1/5的人称他们总想当然认为上司对每个人都是公平的，而仅有1/4的人曾和同事探讨过薪资以此来估测自己有没有被公平对待。
那些知道同事比自己工资高的人中，仅有36%足够自信向上司提出了加薪。
13%的人承认自己因此被解约了，而更有15%的人称自己从来就没拿到过雇佣合同。
1/4的人不清楚合同里面有哪些限制条款，21%的人称自己根本不清楚“辞职通知期”是什么。
部分受访者表示他们的薪酬福利还包括奖金和佣金，但有70%的人称评判过程并不公平。