I have been angry at past employers telling me I’m not allowed to talk with my co-workers about what we get paid. I feel like it’s MY business to share!
so I was interested when I heard about Salary Transparent Street, which is explained in an interview on the her money podcast here
Walking the Salary Transparent Street I am currently listening to it. from the link:
online video series where she approaches strangers on the street and asks them two simple questions: “What do you do?” and “How much do you make?
it makes sense if employers are against it, transparency is actually a good thing.
please post if you would or would not share and why and I will include a poll if I can figure out how. I have the stickied thread with directions open and cannot find the “additional options” box so far.
I kind of do. I work for a city and my title is public information. There are three or four tiers for each title, but anyone who figures out how to use the city website well enough to find the jobs list can get close.
but if it wasn’t public, would you be willing to share?
the podcast I’m listening to makes a very good argument for sharing.
and:
Just 17% of employees at private companies say that their company’s salary information is public, and 41% say that their managers actively discourage them from talking about their wages.
I want to know what’s fair and what others who do what I do make - I want everyone to share.
Looking at it, my name is still on that list because I am receiving state retirement and my medical coverage is covered by the taxpayers until next month. I have no issue with folks knowing where their taxes are going.
It’s hard to know if I would share - I mean , I would but to some extent that’s because I was a public employee and anyone who knew me well enough could figure out that I was in Title A and the range for that is X- Y and I’ve had the job for more than 7 years so I get top pay and I get a B location differential and so on. Now, there’s a website where anyone can look up a salary and how much the employee was actually paid ( including overtime for jobs where that is available) and you can also look up pension amounts.
It’s not just your business, you have a right to discuss your salary with others. Policies that forbid you from discussing you salary are illegal under the National Relations Labor Act.
I represent management and I already know what everyone is making. If I were attempting to organize, yeah, I’d disclose what I make. As you wrote, it’s in the interest of the company to keep salaries mysterious.
With total strangers? Sure. With close friends? Never. Too easy to damage our relationship.
My employer actually encourages employees to use Glassdoor, which includes salary information. They seem to think that the benefit of good reviews outweighs any negatives.
I’ve shared with a few close friends, and likely one or two strangers. I don’t do it often, and certainly not without good reason. I’m really well paid in a rather senior technical position, and it would almost seem like bragging in some cases.
I’m sorry, I misunderstood. Back when I worked in the private sector, I didn’t talk because I was young and stupid and didn’t understand my rights.
If I had it to do all over again, hell yeah, I would have discussed pay and other perks with anyone interested. I am female. I quit several jobs after learning that a newer male was making more than me because he was “supporting a family” or because he was a single guy who didn’t get help paying his rent.
OTOH, knowing how much other folks made in government work helped me figure out if I really wanted to apply for a lateral move just because I was bored with where I was.
Same for me. If I were in San Francisco instead of Arkansas I’d be making a lot more money each year. I’d be living in a tent in someone’s backyard eating cold beans out of a can, but I’d be making more money.
the woman interviewed in the podcast talked about how keeping the whole subject taboo helps keep the gender pay gap (and all the other pay gaps) from being understood.
I live in a rural town and make more money than someone in a big city would because there are more people competing for those jobs. if only there was affordable housing here I’d be set.
Here in the UK, there is a bit of a social taboo against discussing how much money you have either as savings and assets, or income, so from a cultural background standpoint, I am averse to sharing such details.
I can, however, see the logic in the argument that transparency might possibly lead to fairer outcomes for employees in comparable or competing roles.
However, my current job* is a bit weird. I do actually get a fair bit of enquiry about it and I suspect that most people who ask me about money have a motive that is nothing to do with equity, but rather desire to criticise or scorn in some way, or to scam me or beg from me (depending on what my declaration of income was, I suppose).
And that is exactly why employers don’t want you to talk about it.
Am I willing to share? Sure. Watch this:
I am a cashier and last year (2021) my W2 said I made 28,447 and some change. I also made a bit on the side, putting my gross income up to $31,200 (rounded off to the nearest 100 because it looks tidier).
I’m sure there are people with the same job making more, and others making less depending on where they live.
Discussion of wages at work usually start with “have you hit the salary cap?”. If you have, well, then, we all know what you’re making an hour. If you haven’t, it’s less and some will share and some won’t. Not a real common discussion.
I have the stickied thread with directions open and cannot find the “additional options” box so far. 