Many people think that they are paid the same as their coworkers but haven't actually seen their payrolls. Then, one day, discover how much others make and find out that they aren't making the same hourly wage.

I know because I work on IT as a business partner for HR and one of the classical reports we create is one that basically compares payrolls.

People tend to believe that just by having a collective agreement, that everyone made the same. But most wages are negotiated and there are several wage concepts called complements that add to your gross income. Well, two people that have the same tasks can have different complements depending on different things. That happens even among men. So two people can be assigned to look at recess and only one had a complement for that responsibility (to put an example). A classical example is "to be on call". Some people bill just to be on call while others only get paid when they are called and other is not even paid for that.

Well, there is a pattern that it is usually women the ones who aren't compensated for those things. Usually, because they are told that there won't be a need to be "on-call" but then asked to be on call anyway. It is more common than this kind of situation happen to women.

Also, women can negotiate one schedule and accept lower pay in exchange for that schedule only for the bosses to ask for unpaid overtime once they are in.

I can go on.

So let me ask you a question, are your colleague's payroll public? In some countries, public workers have public pay and that reduces the wage gap. But if you haven't seen their payroll, the truth is that you don't really know how much they make.