

Should Your Salary Be Made Public? - kirtijthorat
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230572

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dalke
Absolutely. Private salary data is mostly to the advantage of the employer.
When you negotiate your initial salary, you are at a disadvantage because you
have less information than the employer. At the start of your career you have
very little information about the job market and what your position is worth
to a future employer. Your initial salary is often the base for future income.

There's obvious problems when people don't know how much they should be paid.
I need only point to the history behind the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of
2009 as a real-world example.

Moreover, public salary information is not inherently corrosive to a job
environment. Public service salaries (like when I worked for a university) are
public in the US, as are all salaries in some countries (I'm thinking
specifically of Sweden).

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collyw
I completely agree.

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atmosx
That's a cultural matter above anything else. The salaries in question[1], are
considered absurd in Greece. Try posting online that you get _that_ amount of
money and you're going to receive phone calls from people asking for _some
financial help_.

So, I consider my salary a sensitive information and wouldn't want to see it
online. If my boss - I don't have any, though - would want to do that, I would
be against it, but not eagerly.

As far as the average salary for a given position goes, shouldn't unions and
teh state, by imposing the lowest limit, handle the matter?

In Greece the lowest pre-crisis 2010 (2008 started, but 2010 shit hit the
fan), lowest salary was 620 EUR. Of course, you can't live in Athens with such
a low salary if you don't own your house. Now I think it's something like
586[1] and probably going down in order for Greeks to become more
_competitive_. Although competition against more advanced technologically,
financially and industrial countries having the same currency, it's a receipt
for poverty[3] (which is what is happening after all).

[1] [http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/wp-
content/blogs.dir/2304/f...](http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/wp-
content/blogs.dir/2304/files/2013/12/Screen-Shot-2013-12-24-at-4.43.29-AM-
copy.jpg)

[2] [http://ergatika.gr/sse/egsse/](http://ergatika.gr/sse/egsse/)

[3]
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/10198686/...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/10198686/Fifth-
of-Greeks-live-below-poverty-line.html)

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skywhopper
As I have worked for public universities for the past 14 years I've gotten
used to this particular tidbit of knowledge being public information. The only
time it's a problem is if pay is unfairly distributed among the workers. In
which case it's a good thing to be aware of. Public salary data would help
everyone understand what their jobs are really worth. Credit reporting
agencies, banks, the government, management, and the NSA all know everyone's
salary. Why should the bottom rung workers be the only ones left in the dark?

------
Randgalt
I'm not telling you mine :) Use Glassdoor for averages.

~~~
collyw
You are part of the problem then :)

Giving complete advantage to the employers. (Have you noticed IT wages going
down over the last ten years? They certainly have here in Europe).

