4 ms·

This always gets trotted out by people who make good money and who's family and friends basically all make good money. It's like the personal finance instance

This always gets trotted out by people who make good money and who's family and friends basically all make good money. It's like the personal finance instance of saying "I have nothing to hide so I don't need privacy". I'd rather not have the in-laws knowing exactly how much I make or have my next employer know exactly how much more they're offering than the last one thank you very much. While I understand that in some countries tax returns are public, those countries are very different than the US in a multitude of ways (which are beyond the scope of this comment, I'm not going write a wall of text, those invite nit picking).

amelius 7y ago
> I'd rather not have the in-laws knowing exactly how much I make or have my next employer know exactly how much more they're offering than the last one thank you very much. But on the flip side, you'll know exactly how much your colleagues make.
- lvh 7y ago
  By framing it as a flip side it sounds like two sides of a “fair” coin, but for the vast majority of people their relationship to their employer is one with a serious power imbalance.
  - amelius 7y ago
    By knowing what your coworkers earn (just like your employer knows!) you decrease the power imbalance.
    - lvh 7y ago
      You missed my point: the incentive to remove that balance already exists among workers (eg pay self-disclosure), but now companies know exactly how much you make. There’s no positive worker outcome to companies having that information.
- cj 7y ago
  > But on the flip side, you'll know exactly how much your colleagues make. Can’t you also ask your co-worker if you care to know? My thought is this also risks creating unnecessary resentment in the office. (Most people will react negatively finding out a colleague makes $10k more, even if that colleague has more years of experience - people don’t think about compensation rationally)
- raxxorrax 7y ago
  Which would immediately form a hierarchy.
- cbg0 7y ago
  > But on the flip side, you'll know exactly how much your colleagues make. For most large companies you can already research what the average salary is for a specific position on sites like glassdoor.
- sokoloff 7y ago
  Which is something that I don't care about in the slightest. Taking privacy away from people and giving them something of no value to them in trade is a poor justification for change.

amelius 7y ago

> I'd rather not have the in-laws knowing exactly how much I make or have my next employer know exactly how much more they're offering than the last one thank you very much. But on the flip side, you'll know exactly how much your colleagues make.

lvh 7y ago
By framing it as a flip side it sounds like two sides of a “fair” coin, but for the vast majority of people their relationship to their employer is one with a serious power imbalance.
- amelius 7y ago
  By knowing what your coworkers earn (just like your employer knows!) you decrease the power imbalance.
  - lvh 7y ago
    You missed my point: the incentive to remove that balance already exists among workers (eg pay self-disclosure), but now companies know exactly how much you make. There’s no positive worker outcome to companies having that information.
cj 7y ago
> But on the flip side, you'll know exactly how much your colleagues make. Can’t you also ask your co-worker if you care to know? My thought is this also risks creating unnecessary resentment in the office. (Most people will react negatively finding out a colleague makes $10k more, even if that colleague has more years of experience - people don’t think about compensation rationally)
raxxorrax 7y ago
Which would immediately form a hierarchy.
cbg0 7y ago
> But on the flip side, you'll know exactly how much your colleagues make. For most large companies you can already research what the average salary is for a specific position on sites like glassdoor.
sokoloff 7y ago
Which is something that I don't care about in the slightest. Taking privacy away from people and giving them something of no value to them in trade is a poor justification for change.