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New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

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Re: New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I frequently see people with work history in the $30/hour range applying for very high pay jobs. Does a low-paying job in the past disqualify you from high-paying jobs in the future?

In my experience, it mostly does. Everyone tries to funnel you into +5-15% positions and may relent to +15%-30% when you reject their offer (two times and they still decide they need you).

I generally just don't say what my current role pays when interviewing. I ask what pay range they're targeting, and if they need a number from me, I'll offer a range where the low end is what I'd actually like.

Re: New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

#122

> “We have small employers who don’t even know about the law,” said Kerbein, who predicted there would be “a lot of unintentional noncompliance.” Fair. But that's not how laws work. I may turn down a road not knowing that it's 35 and I get a ticket for going 45. Not knowing isn't an excuse.

IANAL, but I started googling and here's what I found...

I've heard of "mens rea", which means in order for a crime to be committed, you need to have a "guilty mind".

From what I can tell, ignorance of the law can be an excuse. If there's a law stating that wearing purple on Tuesdays is a criminal offense, and I wear purple on Tuesday, a prosecutor would have to prove that I knowingly & willingly committed a crime (e.g. showing a social media post where I saw "I'm going to wear purple this Tuesday. I dare you to arrest me!").

In the case of a traffic offense, ignorance of the law is typical not an excuse because a traffic not a criminal offense.

Can a real lawyer comment here?

Sources for my amateur legal assessment:

- mens rea: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/mens_rea

- Actus Reus vs. Mens Rea vs. Strict Liability: https://shorylaw.com/actus-reus-vs-mens-rea-vs-strict-liabil...

Re: New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

#123
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely not, it's a VC ecosystem oddity just like people saying they make $400k when most of that is stock and sometimes there isn't even a liquid market for it. The median software engineer salary in the US is something like $110k. Still about twice the average individual income in the US[0], but the vast majority are going to be making 99% of their income in cash compensation including bonuses. I've worked for a…

I believe that a lot of companies offer stock options for two reasons: 1. Software engineers have come to expect it 2. It provides a very cheap incentive for the engineer to remain at the company for the N number of years required to vest And in the end, they may still end up being worthless

If you want to use "software engineers" to describe everyone in the US who writes code, I don't think #1 is accurate at all. Half of the developers in the US make less than $100k/yr. Most of these people work for banks, small mom-and-pop companies that have 1-3 developers. Public companies with bigger teams who don't give stock to anyone below the VP level.

If your entire exposure to software development has been startup fantasy land where profitability doesn't matter yeah most of those companies are giving everyone stock down to the person at the front desk answering phones. That's the minority by every metric - number of companies, number of developers, total revenue, everything. I don't think anyone expects stock compensation unless they're artificially limiting their search to that type of company.

Re: New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

#124
post #76
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Posting a large, unreal range will also cause headaches internally with your existing employees. Skip all the hassle and just use a valid range. Because of the laws getting passed in other states, many postings already have ranges and they have looked reasonable to me.

I think the largest range I've seen that wasn't very obviously from some resume harvester or z-tier recruiting firm was $30-40k between the lowest and highest, and it didn't seem to grow all that much as the upper band number increased (e.g. I distinctly remember one that said $180-200k). These $50-500k ranges simply don't happen in reality.

I've seen plenty that go $100-350k, especially when it looks like a company is hiring a few people... Useless to a candidate, but not dodgy or malicious.

Re: New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

#125
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re HR people - a log is a thing that used to be a tree.

No hate for HR but i have to share a funny line my previous business partner used to quote: "These people are often neither humane nor are they resourceful"

At least they provide resourceful humans :-)

Re: New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

#126
post #95
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the range spans an order of magnitude, should I consider the logarithmic or linear midpoint? That is geometric or arithmetic mean between the ends?

Either works but using the logarithmic could be a lot harder finding the correct base

And you'll make less money

Or ask HR: What's the logarithmic mean base for your salary range?

Re: New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

#127
post #3

I have never worked in a job where you can give a reasonable pay band and routinely made 1.5-3x what other people with the same title did, before bonuses. This really only works for well-defined jobs in production, retail, and seems to bring little utility for the HN crowd.

That may be also a sign of poorly defined levels. If you're calling people the same i.e. set the same expectations, but pay them 3x different amount, something's weird with the org.

Maybe, maybe not.

I mean, titles don't really mean anything to developers. It's not like in the army where everyone knows the difference between a colonel and a general.

You could run an organisation where everyone from a new graduate right up to Linus Torvalds has the same title, just a different level of pay.

Re: New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

#128
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the range spans an order of magnitude, should I consider the logarithmic or linear midpoint? That is geometric or arithmetic mean between the ends?

They’re HR people - a log is a thing that used to be a tree.

Is the midpoint between 20k and 80k 40k or 60k?

Is the midpoint between 10k and 1M 100k or 505k?

I think intuitively when the span is large we easily reason in logarithms even with little math training.

Re: New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

#129
post #76
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Posting a large, unreal range will also cause headaches internally with your existing employees. Skip all the hassle and just use a valid range. Because of the laws getting passed in other states, many postings already have ranges and they have looked reasonable to me.

I think the largest range I've seen that wasn't very obviously from some resume harvester or z-tier recruiting firm was $30-40k between the lowest and highest, and it didn't seem to grow all that much as the upper band number increased (e.g. I distinctly remember one that said $180-200k). These $50-500k ranges simply don't happen in reality.

Take a look at Netflix, here's one at random but I believe they're all like this:

https://jobs.netflix.com/jobs/294103648

"The overall market range for roles in this area of Netflix is typically $180,000 - $900,000."

Re: New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

#130
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same work should bring the same payment, period. Everything else just ends up rewarding those with the best "negotiation" skill which is completely unrelated to one's actually work-relevant skills.

> The same work should bring the same payment, period. How do you reward good job performance?

If it's a small company, what about revenue and profit sharing over the next X years (so they do what's good long term not quarterly), weighted by how many days they've worked for the company?
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