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That alone is pretty important information, though I'd go one step farther and require all employee payroll data to be published.

by geebee 12y ago

vacri 12y ago
Yeah, that doesn't work. I used to be really open with what I earned, because I didn't care if people knew. Turns out that sometimes people can get a bit resentful if you do similar jobs and you earn a little more than them. And sometimes people that do similar jobs and earn a little or a lot more than you seem to take this as a social signal and you get a new little social wall between you as you're not on their level. I had a friend who worked in a job doing social research, and one of the jobs was talking to people about childhood sexual abuse that they had, a job that was only done by the more experienced staff. This is random cold-calling to strangers, and it was handled very delicately, reminding the person at regular intervals that they can stop the survey any time and that all questions were optional. He said the odd thing was that if someone started the survey, they generally completed the 20-minute interview, and it was only in the demographics section at the end that people bridled a little - at the 'salary range' question. Some people don't care about who makes what salary. A lot of people use it to varying degrees as a social status signaller. I've tried being open about mine, and these days, I'd prefer not to share, though I still do with close friends who I know aren't wanky about salary.
- AlexandrB 12y ago
  > Yeah, that doesn't work. I used to be really open with what I earned, because I didn't care if people knew. Turns out that sometimes people can get a bit resentful if you do similar jobs and you earn a little more than them. And sometimes people that do similar jobs and earn a little or a lot more than you seem to take this as a social signal and you get a new little social wall between you as you're not on their level. This is really a consequence of a culture that confuses material compensation with personal worth and success. I wonder if this is different outside of the western/North American job market.

That alone is pretty important information, though I'd go one step farther and require all employee payroll data to be published.

by geebee 12y ago

That alone is pretty important information, though I'd go one step farther and require all employee payroll data to be published.

vacri 12y ago

Yeah, that doesn't work. I used to be really open with what I earned, because I didn't care if people knew. Turns out that sometimes people can get a bit resentful if you do similar jobs and you earn a little more than them. And sometimes people that do similar jobs and earn a little or a lot more than you seem to take this as a social signal and you get a new little social wall between you as you're not on their level. I had a friend who worked in a job doing social research, and one of the jobs was talking to people about childhood sexual abuse that they had, a job that was only done by the more experienced staff. This is random cold-calling to strangers, and it was handled very delicately, reminding the person at regular intervals that they can stop the survey any time and that all questions were optional. He said the odd thing was that if someone started the survey, they generally completed the 20-minute interview, and it was only in the demographics section at the end that people bridled a little - at the 'salary range' question. Some people don't care about who makes what salary. A lot of people use it to varying degrees as a social status signaller. I've tried being open about mine, and these days, I'd prefer not to share, though I still do with close friends who I know aren't wanky about salary.

AlexandrB 12y ago
> Yeah, that doesn't work. I used to be really open with what I earned, because I didn't care if people knew. Turns out that sometimes people can get a bit resentful if you do similar jobs and you earn a little more than them. And sometimes people that do similar jobs and earn a little or a lot more than you seem to take this as a social signal and you get a new little social wall between you as you're not on their level. This is really a consequence of a culture that confuses material compensation with personal worth and success. I wonder if this is different outside of the western/North American job market.