It sounds like just a bad deal. You don't have to do it based on credentials. They could have grandfathered in everyone, a subset of top performers, or made it based on role; the role USUALLY hires grads, but not always. You see this in manufacturing where machine operators occasionally work as engineers. The flip side is maybe you WERE being overpaid, able to trick your way to some kind of advantage, and got caught.
It does make it more challenging to reward top performers, who might be better off just sitting back and taking it easy, since number of years dictate pay... this is a problem anyway in my industry. People do notice if you're especially lazy or ambitious, but it often all looks the same, and doesn't matter unless you have eyes on management. You wind up being a necessary evil almost no matter what.
I do agree about being too focused on credentials. I could see how this system could do this, but it doesn't have to be that way.
It does make it more challenging to reward top performers, who might be better off just sitting back and taking it easy, since number of years dictate pay... this is a problem anyway in my industry. People do notice if you're especially lazy or ambitious, but it often all looks the same, and doesn't matter unless you have eyes on management. You wind up being a necessary evil almost no matter what.
I do agree about being too focused on credentials. I could see how this system could do this, but it doesn't have to be that way.