Salary dispute

[dclc08]

Offered promotion and verbally negotiated salary increase three weeks ago. They initially offered a vague percent increase, 8-15%, which I counter-offered by e-mail with a set amount both monthly and annually. My direct supervisor countered verbally with a mutually accepted amount, that he said would be retroactive three days into the current pay period. I received my check from this pay period which lacked agreed upon increase. I e-mailed my supervisor asking about it which he e-mailed in reply that I would receive increase amount not paid on following paycheck along with pay increase. Today I receive call from him stating that upper management would not sign off on increase, 32%, and instead are offering a 22% increase and in six-months I would receive an evaluation and receive "the remaining percentage". I accepted this position and have been in this position for over three weeks now and assumed this compensation was settled. What options do I have in making them stick to the original verbal agreement?

[Bricks41]

This is why you have things in writing no matter at which stage the discussions are in at the moment. If they initially thought the promotion warranted a 8 - 15%, why would they be willing to accept something substantially higher then anything else you have relayed to us? 32%.

Typcially if an employer is thinking about a promotion, they have a certain figure in mind, in this case 8 - 15% of your current salary. If you countered, which is normal, what would possess you to counter with something way more than double the initial discussion???

This would be like if I said I made 30,000 per year... The offer for the promotion is for $33,900 (13%), but you "countered" for $39,600.

No company would agree to that since the previous max of 15% would typically encompass the employer's "max" increase or max base wage for the positon.