Taylor Byrnes had her second job interview with a company cancelled after she asked them about pay.
She had applied to work with online food delivery service SkipTheDishes, whose headquarters are in Winnipeg, Canada.
Having had an initial phone interview with the company, Taylor says she was offered a second interview, in person, for a menu testing.
Taylor followed up her phone interview with an email asking about wages and benefits. She was not expecting the response she got, however, when they suddenly cancelled their upcoming interview with her.
She shared her story on Twitter.
Via Twitter: @feministjourney
Taylor's email to talent acquisition co-ordinator at SkipTheDishes, Victoria Karras, read: "I had another question that I wanted to ask you. If I do end up filling this position, how much do you think I'll be getting paid an hour? Benefits will also be included, right? Sorry, I just thought I should ask now. Thanks for your time and have a lovely day".
Victoria responded, informing Taylor they would "not be following through" with the second interview.
She wrote: "Your questions reveal that your priorities are not in sync with those of SkipTheDishes. At this time we will not be following through with our meeting this Thursday."
In a follow-up email, further explaining SkipTheDishes' reasons for not continuing the interview process, Taylor was told her "focusing on compensation" suggests she wouldn't be a good fit for the company.
It read: "Your questions are valid ones and we would like to clarify where we may have not communicated our position clearly. As a startup company, we seek out those who go out of their way to seek out challenges and new opportunities. We believe in hard work and perseverance in pursuit of company goals as opposed to focusing on compensation. Our corporate culture may be unique in this way, but it is paramount that staff display intrinsic motivation and are proven self-starters.
For these reasons, questions about compensation and benefits at such an early stage is a concern related to organizational fit [sic]."
Taylor has received a lot of support on Twitter since sharing the emails.
Her tweet, at the time of writing, has been retweeted over 5,000 times.
Though, some people believed it was too early, and unprofessional, for Taylor to ask about pay.
SkipTheDishes (@SkipTheDishes) replied to the tweet, saying: "Hi Taylor, sorry to hear about this - one of our co-founders will be in touch with you shortly."
According to Buzzfeed, SkipTheDishes have now offered to reschedule Taylor's interview.
Co-founder, Joshua Simair, also said: "The email sent to Taylor was wrong and does not represent our team's approach or values."
"We are very disappointed in how it was handled. We do share a compensation package prior to hiring."