:confused: I started working for a public charter school in Michigan as a receptionist last August. I recently received a promotion to HR in May and that increased my pay by 10K. I was denied the annual increase this August because of my promotion. The reason given was because I received my raise before everyone else, but that was not stated to me before I accepted the position. We do not have anything in writing as far as an employee handbook in place as of yet, so they make decisions based on need. Is this legal? What is the difference between a promotion and an annual increase (based on performance)?

:confused: I started working for a public charter school in Michigan as a receptionist last August. I recently received a promotion to HR in May and that increased my pay by 10K. I was denied the annual increase this August because of my promotion. The reason given was because I received my raise before everyone else, but that was not stated to me before I accepted the position. We do not have anything in writing as far as an employee handbook in place as of yet, so they make decisions based on need. Is this legal? What is the difference between a promotion and an annual increase (based on performance)?

Yes, this is legal.

A promotion means an advancement from a position in one staff class to a position in a staff class with a higher salary range. An annual increase based on performance is an increase based on merit for satisfactory job performance over the past year.

Typically, when an employee receives a promotion, it is due to high performance, thus warranting not only an increase due to the change in staff class but also a merit increase at the same time. It is up to the employer to determine if another increase is given at the time that annual increases are given to other employees. It sounds like that since your promotion date was so close to the date of the regular annual increases, they just gave you your increase 3 months early. However, they should have made this fact clear to you at the time.

As a side note, remember that an employer is not compelled by law to give annual increases (unless you're making minimum wage and federal law raises the minimum wage rates), although it is a good business practice and a way to retain the best employees.