Just curious: does anyone have full access to salary and compensation data at their company? I do. I work at a public University so all of this is considered public data anyway, and once a year our college paper actually publishes a list of college employees with their salaries listed. Anyone can buy a copy for $6, plus they keep a copy at the U library. A significant number of people, like me, also have full access to salary data in the personnel database because of the research we do. However, I don’t know anyone who uses it for sneaky purposes, and we are trusted not to abuse it. I have friends here at the University and I could look their salaries up, but it seems like a crappy thing to do so I don’t bother.
One time some jerk in another office was being completely unhelpful and dimwitted and I commented that the useless idiot probably made more money than me. My boss said “He probably does. Go look it up.” I demurred, saying it would just make me mad. She said, “I order you to. Then come back and tell me.” Heh.
Oh, and the only time I’ve known people to discuss salaries was when my friends all graduated from the MBA program. Nearly everyone compared offers, and this was half bragging, half sharing information for negotiation leverage.
The only time I’ve shared salary information was with close friends, who work in the same field as I do. Since some of are public sector and some are private, we were curious what the difference was. We’re a very tight group, and we have tried to help each other career-wise for years, so knowing what each other is looking for is helpful.
The other folks I’ve shared/compared salaries with are another couple. They brought it up in the context of career changing discussions. Money is much more important to them than to my wife and I, and by the end of that conversation I felt very much like they were condescending towards us. I have never shaken that feeling when we get together with them.
An American myself, it came as a surprise to me that so many people are private about their salaries - I don’t really care if anybody knows how much I make ($9.00 hourly). It just seems like such an inconsequential question to have people react as if you’d out of the blue just asked what their mother’s cup size was or some such.
Cranky, at Mr. genie’s old company (large tech firm), it was absolutely verboten to try to find out about coworkers’ salaries, or to discuss your own. It was grounds for dismissal.
I think part of the reason that it is usually considered rude to ask about salary is that some people tend to get really upset by it. It’s not good for social harmony, it’s intrusive on privacy, and there’s rarely a good reason to know besides plain nosiness, which is always to be squashed.
Chicago here, and I’ve only very rarely had anyone ask outside of salary negotiations when job hunting, and would find it rude otherwise. My response to being asked in social situations is usually “a small step up from my last job, but I’m much happier at this one” and I use that to redirect the conversation.
I’ve flinched when my husband has revealed his salary in discussions with friends, but that’s an effect of growing up in his family - his dad is very blatant about talking about money, telling other people what they should be making/doing with money, and so on, to the point where he’ll calculate what someone should be pulling down in take-home pay and then asking them why they don’t have a house yet, etc.
Of course I also think it’s a rude question, and no one’s ever asked me. Couple of other points:
I’m a lawyer who works at a large firm, so everyone in my law school class (and probably most other lawyers in the city) know exactly how much I make when I tell them where I work.
I can guess within $10,000 usually just about how much a young lawyer makes depending on where he or she works, so there’s no need to ask.
My best friend and I shared our salaries together one night (after having too much to drink) and come to find out she makes over twice as much as I do. When I told her how much I made, her eyes bugged out and she said “You NEED to get a better job!” - so it is a HUGE mistake to discuss salary with anyone! I learned my lesson, and felt a bit “below” her when I found out she made so much… oh well, such is life…
Is it common to have people in the same position and function getting different salaries ? What is the reason ? The bosses managed to negotiate a lower/higher salary for each employee ?
Another midwesterner here. I work in an uncommon, somewhat glamorous field and people can’t seem to resist asking how much I make. I find it very offensive and always give a vague answer. Consequently, people usually conclude that I make much more than I actually do, which is not to my benefit when I am then expected to assume expenses, business or personal, that I can’t afford. It’s a no-win situation.
It would depend a lot on the particular position, but in some experience is a significant factor, as is personality (people skills, negotiating skills, self-motivation). And, probably at least somewhat related to the aforementioned, productivity.
The answer to that is simple… to save the company money.
There are different reasons why different employees are hired at different salaries…sometimes its discrimination. Other times it’s simply experience. Also, in lean times, employers can offer lower salaries to new employees, but when things are good, they have to offer hire salaries to attract and retain employees.
As far as discussing pay with other workers… I did once have a job that gave me a letter advising me of my merit increase, and that same letter said that discussing my pay with other employees could result in termination.
In my field (law), if you are a lateral hire (meaning, not a brand-new lawyer fresh out of school but an already practicing attorney moving “laterally” from one job to another), salaries will vary based on the level of experience and skill of the applicant and how bad the firm/ company/ governmental entity/ whatever wants to hire that person. So yeah, people doing essentially the same job (but not exactly the same job, people with more experience will of course be given more responsibility) may be paid different salaries. This is also explained in part by the fact that the personnel “structure” of a law office is essentially flat – there’s partners (or supervising attorneys), associates (or general working attorneys), paralegals, and support staff. Each level generally makes more than the level(s) below it (sometimes a lot more), but salaries within each level can and do vary (again, sometimes by a lot).