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Salary transparency already exists, just that it works one way only: the employer knows everyone's salary and they thoroughly research the salaries paid by thei
by yholio 8y ago
Salary transparency already exists, just that it works one way only: the employer knows everyone's salary and they thoroughly research the salaries paid by their competitors.
As a general economic principle, I can't really see any situation where this information asymmetry works to the benefit of the workers. It might benefit some employees in critical positions that can bridge the information gap and gain an advantage over their peers.
But on average, no, transparency reduces the leverage of the employer; else they wouldn't fight to maintain that information differential, they would promote full transparency in order to pay everyone less as you say.
- whatshisface 8y ago>they thoroughly research the salaries paid by their competitors How do they go about this? Through means accessible to individuals?
- yanslookup 8y agoCheck out imercer.com. Depending on how you look at it it may start to look like a a middleman for cartels.
- yholio 8y agoThere are market research firms that specialize in this area. It's useful to have such information, so it has monetary value - money presumably saved by underpaying or avoiding overpaying your workers. It's not something the average employee would afford in money and effort to research. It's a good question how the data is obtained. Maybe through mutual data sharing agreements in exchange for access? Anyway, I've see such reports for my country, with very detailed breakdowns for job types, seniority, broad technology area, forecasts etc.
- GlickWick 8y agoThink about all the times you've told a recruiter/hiring manager your previous salary (don't, btw). Think about the HR teams and such at your company that have access. Shrewd people can get this data, especially if they're willing to pay for it.
- paulie_a 8y agoMost people I know just lie and add 20+ percent. If you are moving to a different market...they add 50 percent of the real salary.
- froindt 8y agoThere are companies out there who organize salary surveys. Every company pays in a bit to cover the costs/overhead with putting together a market report, and also submit the job titles and salaries of their workers. Possibly more data too, but I'm not certain. E.g. time with the company or years of relevant experience would be very handy.
- monocasa 8y agoYou just go out and buy the information. It's not really available to individuals. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-02/equifax-has-amassed-salary-details-for-people-at-7-100-companies https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-02/equifax-h...
- standerman 8y agoThe Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a lot of data, not that granular but by region and larger city it is very good: https://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm https://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm
- monocasa 8y agoEquifax will sell you an individual's data. Like "this guy with this social security number had this yearly salary".
- mc32 8y agoCompanies use information services in order to pay appropriately. They neither want to overcompensate and drive higher wages nor do they want to under compensate and lose staff to competitors.
- giobox 8y agoYou can get pretty reasonable numbers, especially in the software industry, just using the freely available H1B visa salary data. All employers using these visas have to disclose the title, salary and location for an employee hired on one. In my experience for companies I'm familiar with these numbers are usually pretty accurate. > https://h1bdata.info https://h1bdata.info
- whatshisface 8y agoThanks so much, this is the career advice database I have been looking for for years. Whenever people ask me what they should do when they graduate, I have to base my response on broad government surveys that, for example, lump every single natural science in to a single salary category. With this, I can even make charts.