my girlfriend has been working at a local grocery store as a cashier for at least two years now, probably closer to three. it is the policy of the company she works for to give a raise every 1000 hrs. when she started, then minimum raise the company payed was 6.80 or 6.90 or something like that, so that's what whe got payed. now, recently, the company has raised the minimum raise for employees to 7.18 an hour, which is what she is currently making, so this is a base rate of pay. now, here's where the trouble comes in.

that base pay rate is for new employees who have not gotten a raise yet. my girlfriend has worked there for at least 2000 hours, as calculated by adding up notes on her calender, and therefore should have gotten two raises, however, she is only making the current base rate. the reason they've given her is that they didn't bump people up onto the new scale when they switched to it. however, this story is bs as other employees have been bumped up, and people with less hours than her are making more than her, doing the same job.

she's talked to the store manager about it, and he seems very hesitant to actually do anything about the situation. she has asked him about it on several occasions, and he's been kinda avoiding the subject. at one point, i believe she asked to see her life to date hours, and he told her a figure that worked out to mean that on average, she'd only worked 4 hours a week since she started, which is again bs. this situation is made even more complicated as the store does not have bunch clock, or anything electronic, they just write down if you're there or not.

now she's starting to get really upset about it, as he's told her on a couple occasions he'll do something about it, and never does, and people who have less life to date hours than her are making more than her.

at this point, it seems very unlikely like he himself will do anything to rectify the situation, despite the fact that it's his responsibility for employee's pay.

now quitting is always an option, but she's worked there quite a while now, and likes the other employees, and it's close to her house, so she'd prefer not to. but, i'm afraid that when this all works out, the amount of animosity involved in fixing all this may force her to quit.

and the plot gets even thicker. the store she used to work at was privately owned, and the old owner was racist/sexist to the extreme, and the store had a reputation as such throughout the city. however, the store was then bought by a larger company, so there's a new manager (this imcompetent guy). when they switched over, they made an effort to hire ethnic employees in an attempt to show they were no longer racist. my girlfriend, who's asian got hired partially because of this (they were open about it), as did one of her friends, who's black.

interestingly enough, those are the only non-white people who work at the store, and they are the only two people who are having problems with pay rates. her friend, it turns out, is making below the base pay of the company (7.18), at only 6.75 an hour, and has been instructed by the store manager not to talk to anyone about it. now, this in itself is just conjecture, but it is fairly suspicious.

my question is this: is there anyway to complain/solve this problem that won't result in a degree of animosity that'll cause my girlfriend to have to leave the company? is there anything illegal about not bumping people up onto a new system of pay/not giving raises on the basis of seniority/ paying below the minimum rate for the company.. etc.

as of now, i've recommended to her to ask to get a written copy of her life to date hours. i've told her that if her manager refuses, to go above his head, and complain to the company about the whole situation - again another question: do employees have a right to see an official copy of their life to date hours?

so, what to do?