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If you’re making 3x what other people at your level are making, you’re at the wrong level. Unless you’re already at the highest level. If you’re worth that much

If you’re making 3x what other people at your level are making, you’re at the wrong level. Unless you’re already at the highest level. If you’re worth that much more, I’m surprised that you don’t push for a higher level. The point of levels is to provide an external signal of competence. And perhaps this law will push companies towards doing a better job of that. In nearly 20 years of experience pay doesn’t generally correlate with performance. The people who I’ve seen with massive pay differences were the people who could negotiate well and knew how to play the game to come in with multiple offers. Those people aren't usually the most long term productive employees. Some of them are, but many of them are just better tangentially related skills. The biggest single difference in starting pay by far is having multiple offers. If you make it through selective company A’s hiring process, you likely could have made it through a few similar processes. Whether you bothered to do that or not, says nothing much to me other than how much you care about compensation. But most hiring managers have a serious case of FOMO and this works in the majority of cases.

cmrdporcupine 3y ago
Or "levels" are a low-granularity schema that can't box in how people actually work in their jobs. The reality is that every person working in a position brings different things to the table. While larger businesses create defined level boxes and paths, they're really very rough and imprecise ways to describe people and often do a disservice to people who work hard but not in the way that the boxes "expect." So there are definitely cases when we see people's compensation out of sync with their level (in either direction) and it's sometimes a product of the company recognizing the value of an employee but having levels and tiers that don't match the employee exactly. Some companies, for example, tie higher pay to a management/leadership ladder. But you can be a solid-contributing or 10x or whatever software developer without going down the leadership road.
- sarchertech 3y ago
  Sure they are low granularity. But one person making 3x what another of the same level does goes way behind a rough and imprecise description. That’s a complete breakdown of a level system.
coffeebeqn 3y ago
Why would you push for more responsibility? If I could get paid like a technical leader but without the extra stress then what’s wrong with that?
- sarchertech 3y ago
  Who is going to pay you 3x what the rest of the people at your level make without a corresponding increase in expectations. The reason you’d push for a higher level is because it makes it clearer to the next company that you’re capable of higher level work. If you’re not doing higher level work then how are you justifying a 3x salary?

cmrdporcupine 3y ago

Or "levels" are a low-granularity schema that can't box in how people actually work in their jobs. The reality is that every person working in a position brings different things to the table. While larger businesses create defined level boxes and paths, they're really very rough and imprecise ways to describe people and often do a disservice to people who work hard but not in the way that the boxes "expect." So there are definitely cases when we see people's compensation out of sync with their level (in either direction) and it's sometimes a product of the company recognizing the value of an employee but having levels and tiers that don't match the employee exactly. Some companies, for example, tie higher pay to a management/leadership ladder. But you can be a solid-contributing or 10x or whatever software developer without going down the leadership road.

sarchertech 3y ago
Sure they are low granularity. But one person making 3x what another of the same level does goes way behind a rough and imprecise description. That’s a complete breakdown of a level system.

coffeebeqn 3y ago

Why would you push for more responsibility? If I could get paid like a technical leader but without the extra stress then what’s wrong with that?

sarchertech 3y ago
Who is going to pay you 3x what the rest of the people at your level make without a corresponding increase in expectations. The reason you’d push for a higher level is because it makes it clearer to the next company that you’re capable of higher level work. If you’re not doing higher level work then how are you justifying a 3x salary?