Tell HN: Salary data is for sale • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#201

Post by qbasic_forever » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:56 AM UTC

what_ever wrote: post #121

mgraczyk wrote: post #54

Very interesting, I didn't expect the accuracy and detail in this data. All of my pay from Intel, Google, Facebook is in here. Qualcomm apparently did not report. Also, Google (my latest employer) pulled the data just before I started working, after giving me an offer. My credit card company pulls the data every month, sometimes 2-3 times per month. Several mortgage originators have also pulled the data even though I…

Does the system not ask for SSN to pull this data? If yes, how did Google get your SSN? Disc: Googler.

At the very least you need to provide proof of your SSN before you start employment in the US (as a US citizen at least). This is required for your social security benefits and some tax info. I believe in most states you actually have to physically show your social security card on the first day of employment now too.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#202

Post by geoduck14 » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:57 AM UTC

givemeethekeys wrote: post #51

BeefySwain wrote: post #21

NOTE: It is possible to freeze access to your employment data here: https://employees.theworknumber.com/employee-data-freeze That being said, it doesn't stop employers from continuing to hand Equifax your data on a gold platter, and therefore does nothing to protect you from the inevitable data breach that will result in Equifax being required to give everyone affected $0.36 or one year of free credit monitoring.

But, I didn't opt in for them to have this information about me to begin with.

>But, I didn't opt in for them to have this information about me to begin with.

Everyone is up in arms about Facebook and Google collecting our information... meanwhile credit bureaus are sitting in the shadows giggling to themselves

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#203

Post by koolba » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:57 AM UTC

varenc wrote: post #175

staunch wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I submit the myprivacy.equifax.com validation it hangs at "Processing..." indefinitely. #AbolishCreditAgencies

Check if an ad blocker might be interfering? I finished my CCPA request in ~2 minutes and it only required that I do SMS verification. Presumably because the name, phone, address, and email all matched records they had on file for me...

There’s a special caliber of crappy site that only functions when ad-blocking is enabled.

My working theory is that the sites are so bad, they rely on the ads to provide their dependencies as global. Block the ads and you’ve blocked the ancient version jquery the main site needs loaded of function.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#204

Post by zizee » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:58 AM UTC

scottmcdot wrote: post #168

Is this just for United States?

It doesn't appear to work for Australian employers, so it does not seem to cover every country, and I would guess it is mostly north american?

Do other countries have similarly scummy services? Is there one for Australia? My gut says "yes". What should we google to find similar things in our locale?

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#205

Post by dumpsterdiver » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:58 AM UTC

Honest question for people who are concerned about this - why is it troubling? If another company wants to hire you, obviously they'll need to offer stronger compensation than you currently have to convince you to ditch a comfortable position.

The fact that employers want employees to stay quiet about their compensation so they don't have to start handing out raises doesn't seem like a good reason to be concerned about this to me. From an employers perspective, that taboo makes sense to push - I'm not saying it's right, just that it makes sense from a business perspective. Quite frankly, we've all seen proof that some people are just much more proficient at certain tasks than others. Management could spend all day explaining to someone why that person gets paid way more than the next person, but the simple fact that they have been getting paid more for years speaks for itself in my opinion.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#206

Post by throwawaygh » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:58 AM UTC

Employer 1: Salary only. None of my bonuses or RSUs are included. Bonuses were over half my comp. RSUs were higher than salary at least one year.

Employer 2: Salary and bonus only (large tech co; over half my comp is rsus).

Employer 3: totally wrong.

On the plus side, I now understand why I've occasionally been low-balled and then called a liar when I explain why the offer isn't compelling...

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#207

Post by theanti9 » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:59 AM UTC

teraflop wrote: post #140

pianoben wrote: post #9

"To log in, enter your SSN, date of birth, home address, and" No way, no how.

I dutifully entered everything they asked for, because, you know, they're Equifax and they undoubtedly have it already. Then they said I needed a "verification code" and gave me the option of half a dozen phone numbers and email addresses to choose from... none of which remotely resembled anything I've ever had (the email addresses all contained my surname and appeared to be randomly generated). When I clicked the "n…

This happened to me as well. bunch of random @yahoo addresses (I don't have one of those) and rando phone numbers, none of which were mine. Welp.... who knows wtf they have in there then, I guess.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#208

Post by qbasic_forever » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:59 AM UTC

MichaelBurge wrote: post #117

dboreham wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole "verify your salary with employer" process is BS. Lenders can verify income by requesting your tax returns, and N recent pay stubs (source: I own my employer and have verified income this way, since obviously they are not going to call myself up and ask me to verify my own income). This is only about reducing their verification costs. If there needs to be a giant database of everyone's income, the governmen…

If you verify with tax returns, it would be easy to borrow money from a friend and count it as income every year just for loan qualification. And then borrow more money from a bank, wait 6 months for seasoning, and use it as down payment to buy real estate. And if the loan gets sold to the government, it needs to meet government underwriting criteria and the lender has no free will. Especially for residential mortgag…

If you're "borrowing" money from a friend to bump up your income, you're likely going to bump yourself up into a higher tax bracket and end up paying more money in taxes.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#209

Post by kbuck » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 6:01 AM UTC

starwind wrote: post #124

bradlys wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume this would only work if you want to never get a loan or say a new credit card - or anything of the sort that relies on that history. Heck - maybe wouldn't even work for renting?

Unfreezing is a relatively easy process. They'll send you a pin where you can do it online, or you can send them a letter. It'll take them about 7 to 10 days to unfreeze things

Just to add on: an online unfreeze is instant, and all of the major agencies also let you unfreeze for a specified date range (even down to 1 day, I think -- although I usually do 2 or 3 days to cover a second pull if something goes wrong with whatever I'm applying for).

As a side note, if you use the online instant unfreeze, note that at least one of them (I can't remember which) handles timezones extremely poorly, and if the "start" date of your unfreeze has passed in their home timezone, they'll reject the unfreeze with an extremely vague error. You can resubmit using "tomorrow's" date and it will work fine (and be unfrozen immediately).

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#210

Post by onion2k » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 6:01 AM UTC

kmonsen wrote: post #185

onion2k wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to lie. There's nothing wrong with saying "My current salary is $xxxxx, but I feel that my employer undervalues my skills so I want $yyyyyy. It's why I'm leaving my current role." There is no reason why your future salary has to be based on your current salary. If the employer you're negotiating with disagrees then walking away is the best option because they undervalue your skills too.

Then they will just offer something in the middle and try to talk you into it. That being said, at least for the big companies the initial salary is not that important. In some ways you are just setting yourself up for disappointment since if you start at the top of the band there will be no significant raises without a promotion. For RSUs it has a pretty significant effect for 4 years though.

Then they will just offer something in the middle and try to talk you into it.

You can always say no.

In some ways you are just setting yourself up for disappointment since if you start at the top of the band there will be no significant raises without a promotion.

It sounds like you're saying starting at 80% of the band so you can enjoy a 25% raise to get to the top is better than just starting at the top. That doesn't make sense though.