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Open Salaries: Outcomes

blog.lunarlogic.io

61–70 of 225 posts

Re: Open Salaries: Outcomes

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I can give it to you since I work for Lunar Logic. How it looked: everyone felt a bit anxious and not 100% sure if it will be the good decision, but we decided to go for open salaries anyway (it was a collective decision after a series of long discussions of a whole company, not a decision at the top). When the salaries list was released, everyone took a look and there was no disaster. Most of the salaries felt j…

>but we decided to go for open salaries anyway What happened to the people who didn't want to reveal their compensation. Was is it revealed anyways?

There was a choice and these people would just not see the salaries list and participate in salary raise process. But we went all in, everyone was ok with revealing their salaries.

Re: Open Salaries: Outcomes

#62

Some people prefer a compensation model with a base pay + bonuses. Others to have a peer review process like this one. The problem is that those processes work only when there is certain level of mutual trust, selflessness and honesty. If you have really selfish people this thing can start being gamed... e.g: I refer 100 friends in exchange and have them recommend me for a promotion, raise and bonus every quarter.

s/selfish/asshole/ please.

Assholes can game any system.

Re: Open Salaries: Outcomes

#63
I read about this idea once as a case study. I think it was first tried at a manufacturing company[0] in Brazil where everyone from the CEO down to the packers in the dispatch shed has their salary decided by a consensus employees. It's a 3000 person company with a revenue of $160m now.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Semler http://www.freibergs.com/resources/articles/leadership/semco... https://hbr.org/1989/09/managing-without-managers

Re: Open Salaries: Outcomes

#64
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salary does not necesarily map to skill. It is usually defined in terms of your last salary, that is usually disclosed as a part of your background check. Then, offers for H-1B workers are available online. Some other information is on glassdoor.

> It is usually defined in terms of your last salary, that is usually disclosed as a part of your background check. This contradicts the claims of US being such a free and free market country... Sounds Kafkaesque. How does this background check really happen? Can't you deny the disclosure of your previous salary?

Some companies ask for employment confirmation from your former employer. That can include salary information.

Re: Open Salaries: Outcomes

#65
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't government positions paid the same across the board? Financial compensation is companies (particularly in tech) isn't standard across the board for a particular position, each employee can garner a different salary. There's a complex social dynamic related to that feature in companies.

No, there's flexibility in the general schedule system. It both goes from $18K to $133K, and includes cost of living adjustments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Schedule_(US_civil_ser...

You also have GL (for law enforcement), WS (Wage Scale), WG (Wage Grade), and for contractors the Davis Bacon Act. They all also change depending on locality. I don't know what all goes into determining locality pay, but I can say with certainty it's not just the cost of living in the area.

In the WS scale the 3 highest paid is in KS, MI, and Atlanta. I think they consider what other positions in the same kind of fields are paying for the area.

Re: Open Salaries: Outcomes

#67
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salary does not necesarily map to skill. It is usually defined in terms of your last salary, that is usually disclosed as a part of your background check. Then, offers for H-1B workers are available online. Some other information is on glassdoor.

> It is usually defined in terms of your last salary, that is usually disclosed as a part of your background check. This contradicts the claims of US being such a free and free market country... Sounds Kafkaesque. How does this background check really happen? Can't you deny the disclosure of your previous salary?

Background checks are usually related to confirming your education and past employment history and if you have any criminal history. Sometimes they want to know your credit score too which can be a problem for those with a streak of bad luck financially.

Yes you can deny disclosing your previous salary. Usually they will not ask for any official proof anyway so you could make it up or give your expectations.

Re: Open Salaries: Outcomes

#68
post #32

If you're any good at your job, you should avoid these open companies like the plague. Don't piss away your leverage..

Yeah but 80% of the employees aren't in the top 20% and yet everyone is so arrogant as to believe they are. And that's really great, if you're the employer.

Re: Open Salaries: Outcomes

#69
post #6
post #3

This might work for a company of 25, but what a disaster it would be for a company of 100,000+

Really? A lot of governments are one of the few employers with more than 100k+ employees, and have a lot of open salaries for civil servants.

Here's the US Government salary table for GS-schedule employees.[1] Pre-Internet, this was available on a wallet-sized card.

[1] https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries...

Re: Open Salaries: Outcomes

#70
post #32

If you're any good at your job, you should avoid these open companies like the plague. Don't piss away your leverage..

This got downvoted, and the tone is a bit harsh.. but it does speak a bit of truth. What happens to the guy in open salary co who is legit 50% better than everyone else? Do his peers vote to give him 50% more money? Or does it settle on sort of a union style pay scale, where everyone with the same # of years of work makes the same money (which is great for the worst performances, and terrible for the best performers)

>What happens to the guy in open salary co who is legit 50% better than everyone else?

The GP is right in that, that person doesn't have much choice but to move on.

I don't have experience with open salaries but I do have experience with collective agreements and seniority. They aren't meant to take into consideration the "super stars". That's not what they are meant to do. Seniority and collective agreements do suck if you're a "super star".

I don't think there's a system where everyone is a winner.

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