Is this allowed? - Old employees are paid €5 per hour, new ones are promised €7.50!

Undine writes to us: "I have been working as a waitress in a café for 2 years. I am paid 5 euros 'on paper' per hour. I have already tried to talk about a higher salary, but I always get rejected. One of my colleagues has left the job, and they are looking for a new employee. Unfortunately, they have not been able to find one for some time now. Yesterday, I noticed that the job advertisement offers the new colleague a reward of €7.50 per hour. I went to the manager again and said that I also want to receive €7.50 per hour because I always have good results, and the customers are satisfied. He refused. Only when I said that I would leave the job did he concede. But is this normal?" Undine wants to find out if this is permissible under labor law, whether new employees can be paid more than existing ones when it comes to identical work. To find out if there is anything written on this topic in the Labor Law, I contacted lawyer Edijs Liepiņš. He immediately points out that such a situation is unacceptable. According to the lawyer, the employer has grossly violated the principle of equal pay if it concerns identical work. The first part of Article 7 of the Labor Law states: "Everyone has equal rights to work, fair, safe, and healthy working conditions, as well as to fair remuneration for work." In turn, the second part establishes that everyone has equal rights to fair remuneration without any direct or indirect discrimination — regardless of race, skin color, gender, age, disability, religious, political, or other beliefs, national or social origin, property or family status, sexual orientation, or other circumstances. E. Liepiņš points out: "It should be added that Article 60 of the Labor Law stipulates that the employer is obliged to establish equal pay for men and women for the same work or work of equal value. In turn, if the employer has violated this, the employee has the right to demand the remuneration that the employer usually pays for the same work or work of equal value. The employee can file a lawsuit within three months from the day they learned or should have learned about the violation of equal pay." The issue of transparency in remuneration and the implementation of the principle of equal pay is currently particularly relevant in Latvia in connection with the European Parliament and Council Directive (EU) 2023/970, the requirements of which must be incorporated by member states into national legislation by June 7, 2026. "As for how an employee should act — the employee does not need to 'leave the job' to achieve fair remuneration. If verbal discussions about changing remuneration do not yield results, the employee, in order to protect their violated rights, can file an official written complaint with the company, which the employer is obliged to consider and respond to no later than within seven days. It should be emphasized that the third part of Article 94 of the Labor Law states that 'no adverse consequences for the employee are allowed in connection with filing a complaint [...]'. If the situation cannot be resolved, then the employee can report the violation of equal pay to the State Labor Inspectorate and also file a lawsuit in court.