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Paying people more for having more experience isn't some weird fetish that companies engage in. It's done that way because people with more relevant experience
by x1798DE 10y ago
Paying people more for having more experience isn't some weird fetish that companies engage in. It's done that way because people with more relevant experience generally get better at the thing they're experienced in (or have more breadth of knowledge, etc). If you try to pay someone with 10 years experience the salary of someone with 1 years' experience, you will either have a very hard time finding people to hire or you will end up hiring someone who is not very good at their job.
So yes, if someone takes 10 years off to raise children or to go yachting around the world or to help sick children, they will probably not command the same salary that their (otherwise identical) co-worker who stayed in the field for those 10 years would command, because they likely won't be capable of "equal work". Anyone doing anything else would be systematically overpaying their workers, and are likely to be out-competed by companies paying market wages.
- KirinDave 10y ago> So yes, if someone takes 10 years off to raise children or to go yachting around the world or to help sick children, they will probably not command the same salary that their (otherwise identical) co-worker who stayed in the field for those 10 years would command, because they likely won't be capable of "equal work". Anyone doing anything else would be systematically overpaying their workers, and are likely to be out-competed by companies paying market wages. I'm confused by your patronizing tone. You seem to think I don't know that this is common practice. See, the point of the prior post was: I disagree with this premise. The question should be, "How well does this person do the job" not "how well does this person match my preconceptions about how an expert in this job should look." This is especially the case in the world of software and software products, where we're notoriously bad at identifying talent and educating people. Anyone who's designed tech interviews with a high technical standard can tell you that years worked is at best a weak signal.
- gspetr 10y ago> "How well does this person do the job" And people use experience and continued employment as proxy. Sorry, companies have not figured out a better method in general. If you only look at women who never married and never had children the pay gap is tiny.
- adrienne 10y agoStill not zero, though. Why do you think that is?