4 ms·
This is kind of like a prisoner’s dilemma problem. There’s no real reason to post a salary in a job ad, it can only hurt the company.
by xwdv 6y ago
This is kind of like a prisoner’s dilemma problem. There’s no real reason to post a salary in a job ad, it can only hurt the company.
- tyingq 6y agoI suppose there's the risk of losing out on candidates that get bad info from somewhere else on what the salary might be, and never apply. Or wasting time on candidates you'll lose out on after the offer is made.
- emodendroket 6y agoPersonally I won’t bother to apply to a job for a company I haven’t heard of without a listed salary but I have the luxury of taking this stance.
- bluefirebrand 6y agoThere is also the possible benefit where you might attract talent that otherwise would pass on you thinking you can't/won't afford them. Having a good dollar amount listed on your job listings draws eyes. This is especially valuable if people don't know what your company is because you're smaller or just lesser known. Which is honestly most companies.
- padthai 6y agoI have seen this first-hand before. Corps with good salaries but no public ranges. Every time they have to hire out of core competencies and the local market is not too strong for the roles, it can take up to a year for the whole process.
- qez 6y agoIt's not even the prisoner's dilemma. It's just two actors with different incentives.
- sascha_sl 6y agoIn places where it's not illegal to talk about your salary to your coworkers - just heavily frowned upon, and possibly still illegally sanctioned by your boss - , it certainly is not too far. Just knowing what your peers make, especially your immediate team where you probably have better insights on how much relative value they provide, can give you a good feel for being overpaid or underpaid.
- qez 6y agoOh ok, the prisoner's dilemma is about whether you should tell your coworkers your salary.
- sascha_sl 6y agoMandated salary transparency does wonders to this issue. Norway, going even further with all salaries being public has one of the narrowest gender pay gap in the world[1] (in addition to narrow gaps in fields like software engineering that usually have an unusually wide band, even when accounting for similar seniority) 1: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40669239 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40669239
- bmitc 6y agoSalary information comes out sooner or later, so I don’t see how simply posting the information up front hurts anyone.
- rchaud 6y agoBut if the information comes out sooner or later, what's wrong with not disclosing it on the job page?
- Viliam1234 6y agoGiven that companies have perfect freedom to publish the salary information, and yet most choose not to, it probably benefits them somehow. Some people simply underestimate their market value, and companies are happy to keep them in dark, sometimes for years. Other people don't have unlimited time to do job interviews, so if they find something that seems okay and the provided salary is maybe 90% of what they originally wanted, they may choose to take it anyway. If they don't, the interview was a wasted time -- both for them and for the company, but because the company had the option to choose otherwise and decided not to, it's probably a net win for the company. I have no idea about specific numbers, but if the company spends 2× as much time interviewing in return to saving 10% of salary costs, it may be worth it. If the employee wants to spend 2× much time interviewing in return to getting 10% higher salary, they will probably quickly run out of vacation days. The process is usually asymmetrical; the company spends 1 hour interviewing the candidate, the candidate spends some time preparing for the interview, traveling there and back... also, if the interview is in the middle of working time (it usually is), for the company that's 1 hour lost, for the candidate it is 1/2 day off.
- ISL 6y agoSure there is. If the salary is above-market, the employer can afford to pay, and wants to attract interest/applicants, that number will do so.
- defaultname 6y agoThe orgs that hide their salary generally offer below market (but think they can fool you by telling you that they offer a rebate on fitness plans and other extraneous stuff amounting to mere hundreds per year), or they're trying to hide salaries from their own employees. Both are excellent indicators that it isn't worth applying there unless you're out of options.
- dan-robertson 6y agoPlenty of companies that pay above market rate also hide salaries. I don’t know what the theory is (perhaps some attempt to not attract people only in it for the money, but really that just filters out the people who are in it for the money and lack the social network to know that the company pays well, which doesn’t seem better)
- naturalauction 6y agoI also don't know the theory but I'd guess part of it is that it increases loyalty? I know if I got an offer that was substantially higher than expected I'd be much more likely to think that the company valued me specifically/thought I was special, even if they paid everyone else the same.
- Dayshine 6y agoThis depends on what the company needs more: Employees, or money. If they need high quality employees (or any employees at all depending on their industry and location), they need to post their salaries to even get people to consider applying. If they need low quality employees, are in an industry that has high demand, and in a good location: maybe it hurts them. If they need money, why are they hiring?
- biql 6y agoThere are also people who are good employees but aren’t good at marketing and selling themselves, lack negotiation skills, or suffer from the imposter syndrome. I would guess that the lack of transparency allows to take advantage of that.