3 ms·

Is your argument that if you get paid too little and this is public, then your next gig won't pay you more because they know this? If so, can you expand a littl

Is your argument that if you get paid too little and this is public, then your next gig won't pay you more because they know this? If so, can you expand a little on why that would be the case?

beambot 4y ago
Anchoring: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_(cognitive_bias) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_(cognitive_bias)
- FrankyHollywood 4y ago
  oh wow, it's a bit off-topic, but I'm on a desktop now and the mobile view of Wikipedia looks so much better, never realized!
technion 4y ago
This is pretty consistent with communication most people get from recruiters: tell me your salary so we can know what you are worth. Back home I have a few screenshots of LinkedIn messages that opened conversations asking for screenshots of pay slips so they could verify. Not suggesting I agree with the practice of course.
- sgtnoodle 4y ago
  You don't have to comply with their request. If it's for a company you're interested in, you can say no while also being polite, i.e. "Let's not worry about compensation until we're sure it's a good fit."
- raxxorraxor 4y ago
  To be fair, the salary is relevant to recruiters for their compensation. For lower wages it often isn't worth it for them to recruit people. It isn't necessarily a judgement of you, although yes, overall your income is.
  - llampx 4y ago
    Why is previous salary relevant to recruiters for their compensation? Only the salary of the role they are recruiting for should be relevant.
    - raxxorraxor 4y ago
      Yes, only that salary is relevant, but they too see the previous salary as a baseline for any future compensation. They know that the typical case is that salary maybe increases by 10% (number pulled from thin air here) and calculate if the effort is worth it for themselves.
cableshaft 4y ago
Because companies want to get you for as little as they can, and if they know your previous compensation, instead of potentially offering you 30, 40, 50% higher than what you're currently making, they will think they can get away with offering you {your previous salary} + 5% or 10%. That's why a bunch of companies ask what your previous salary was in interviews and why you need to absolutely not give that number in pretty much all circumstances. Like I got a 60% bump from my previous salary my last job search, in part because I hadn't gotten raises for several years at my previous company as they had wage freezes, and in part because I had been behind on compensation for a while due to having to take whatever halfway decent jobs I could get while unemployed, but if the prospective employer knew I was getting paid so little, they probably would have significantly lowered the salary they offered to me, and I'd still be behind the market rate for my skills, and the next time I went looking for a job I still wouldn't be offered enough to catch up to what I'm making now. It's a vicious cycle when they know your current salary.
- hardware2win 4y ago
  You can always do not accept their offert.
  - cableshaft 4y ago
    Not if that's all the offers you get, because they keep using your previous job's salary as a baseline. Or you have to churn through a 2-3 dozen job offers to find something closer to the going market rate, which is exhausting and time consuming. Even for that 60% bump, that was after talking to 20 recruiters over the phone, 8 online code exams, 5 multi-stage interviews, and getting 2 offers, over an exhausting three week period, and juggling all those with a day job was super difficult, and I had to schedule enough of those during the work day that it got to the point where my former boss probably started to notice. I'd hate to have to double, triple, or quadruple that effort just to get maybe a 30% bump if my previous salary was public knowledge.
    - ProZsolt 4y ago
      Maybe they know your previous salary, but they don't know how many offers you have. You just have to put your foot down and say you won't move if they offer less than X and state that you current salary is irrelevant as they up against other companies not your current one. I managed to get a significant salary bump even without having a job, because I made sure they understand from the beginning I'm happy to walk away.
httgp 4y ago
In India, this is almost always the norm. Most companies are willing to offer only 30% on top of what you’re currently making. Anything above that is considered “asking too much”.
MattPalmer1086 4y ago
I've personally experienced this. Salary is taken as a proxy for ability. After the dot com crash, I took lower paid work in the public sector, working on some interesting things. I was approached by a recruiter to work for a company that was basically the best possible fit. They were working on a product category that I had helped to define at a previous start up, where I was the chief technical architect. Once I told the recruiter my current salary, he was no longer interested. He even sounded aghast. Couldn't possibly put me forward for the role.
- candu 4y ago
  I've done work in the public sector before. Here's what I told recruiters who asked for my salary history after that: "In my previous job, I deliberately took a below-market rate to work in the public sector, as a form of service to my community. I don't consider that salary relevant for this discussion." End of story. I'm fortunate to be in a place where broader salary statistics are available, so from there I simply redirected the conversation to "here's what I'm seeing as the range of market rates here, and why I think I deserve to be on the high end of that", and that was fine. Remember: in this industry, your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) is...just walk away, and answer the next recruiter who's begging for your time. If they can't consider putting you forward because of an arbitrary number from a non-comparable position, well, that's their problem and their loss.
  - MattPalmer1086 4y ago
    That works. As you say, it was their loss, but the reaction surprised me at the time. I didn't have any problems negotiating a better salary when I finally left.

Is your argument that if you get paid too little and this is public, then your next gig won't pay you more because they know this? If so, can you expand a little on why that would be the case?

beambot 4y ago

Anchoring: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_(cognitive_bias) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_(cognitive_bias)

FrankyHollywood 4y ago
oh wow, it's a bit off-topic, but I'm on a desktop now and the mobile view of Wikipedia looks so much better, never realized!

technion 4y ago

This is pretty consistent with communication most people get from recruiters: tell me your salary so we can know what you are worth. Back home I have a few screenshots of LinkedIn messages that opened conversations asking for screenshots of pay slips so they could verify. Not suggesting I agree with the practice of course.

sgtnoodle 4y ago
You don't have to comply with their request. If it's for a company you're interested in, you can say no while also being polite, i.e. "Let's not worry about compensation until we're sure it's a good fit."
raxxorraxor 4y ago
To be fair, the salary is relevant to recruiters for their compensation. For lower wages it often isn't worth it for them to recruit people. It isn't necessarily a judgement of you, although yes, overall your income is.
- llampx 4y ago
  Why is previous salary relevant to recruiters for their compensation? Only the salary of the role they are recruiting for should be relevant.
  - raxxorraxor 4y ago
    Yes, only that salary is relevant, but they too see the previous salary as a baseline for any future compensation. They know that the typical case is that salary maybe increases by 10% (number pulled from thin air here) and calculate if the effort is worth it for themselves.

cableshaft 4y ago

Because companies want to get you for as little as they can, and if they know your previous compensation, instead of potentially offering you 30, 40, 50% higher than what you're currently making, they will think they can get away with offering you {your previous salary} + 5% or 10%. That's why a bunch of companies ask what your previous salary was in interviews and why you need to absolutely not give that number in pretty much all circumstances. Like I got a 60% bump from my previous salary my last job search, in part because I hadn't gotten raises for several years at my previous company as they had wage freezes, and in part because I had been behind on compensation for a while due to having to take whatever halfway decent jobs I could get while unemployed, but if the prospective employer knew I was getting paid so little, they probably would have significantly lowered the salary they offered to me, and I'd still be behind the market rate for my skills, and the next time I went looking for a job I still wouldn't be offered enough to catch up to what I'm making now. It's a vicious cycle when they know your current salary.

hardware2win 4y ago
You can always do not accept their offert.
- cableshaft 4y ago
  Not if that's all the offers you get, because they keep using your previous job's salary as a baseline. Or you have to churn through a 2-3 dozen job offers to find something closer to the going market rate, which is exhausting and time consuming. Even for that 60% bump, that was after talking to 20 recruiters over the phone, 8 online code exams, 5 multi-stage interviews, and getting 2 offers, over an exhausting three week period, and juggling all those with a day job was super difficult, and I had to schedule enough of those during the work day that it got to the point where my former boss probably started to notice. I'd hate to have to double, triple, or quadruple that effort just to get maybe a 30% bump if my previous salary was public knowledge.
  - ProZsolt 4y ago
    Maybe they know your previous salary, but they don't know how many offers you have. You just have to put your foot down and say you won't move if they offer less than X and state that you current salary is irrelevant as they up against other companies not your current one. I managed to get a significant salary bump even without having a job, because I made sure they understand from the beginning I'm happy to walk away.

httgp 4y ago

In India, this is almost always the norm. Most companies are willing to offer only 30% on top of what you’re currently making. Anything above that is considered “asking too much”.

MattPalmer1086 4y ago

I've personally experienced this. Salary is taken as a proxy for ability. After the dot com crash, I took lower paid work in the public sector, working on some interesting things. I was approached by a recruiter to work for a company that was basically the best possible fit. They were working on a product category that I had helped to define at a previous start up, where I was the chief technical architect. Once I told the recruiter my current salary, he was no longer interested. He even sounded aghast. Couldn't possibly put me forward for the role.

candu 4y ago
I've done work in the public sector before. Here's what I told recruiters who asked for my salary history after that: "In my previous job, I deliberately took a below-market rate to work in the public sector, as a form of service to my community. I don't consider that salary relevant for this discussion." End of story. I'm fortunate to be in a place where broader salary statistics are available, so from there I simply redirected the conversation to "here's what I'm seeing as the range of market rates here, and why I think I deserve to be on the high end of that", and that was fine. Remember: in this industry, your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) is...just walk away, and answer the next recruiter who's begging for your time. If they can't consider putting you forward because of an arbitrary number from a non-comparable position, well, that's their problem and their loss.
- MattPalmer1086 4y ago
  That works. As you say, it was their loss, but the reaction surprised me at the time. I didn't have any problems negotiating a better salary when I finally left.