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Ask HN: Why is Pave legal?

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Ask HN: Why is Pave legal?

#1
If you haven't heard of it, Pave is a YC-backed startup that helps startups with compensation. I can't actually access the system so I'm speaking from hearsay and what's information on public parts of their website. The way I understand it works is that you connect Pave to your HR and Payroll systems, they take the data about who you employ and how much you pay them, combine it with all their other companies, and give companies a collective breakdown of compensation ranges.

My question is, isn't this specifically anti-competitive wage fixing? This seems exactly like RealPage but for employee compensation. As far as I know, colluding on wages like this is illegal. Is there something about the company that I'm missing?

Re: Ask HN: Why is Pave legal?

#2
I believe wage-fixing would require companies to agree to…fix wages. Having knowledge of average compensation is not inherently problematic. Firms are still able to decide to pay more or less than the prevailing wage.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Pave legal?

#4

I believe wage-fixing would require companies to agree to…fix wages. Having knowledge of average compensation is not inherently problematic. Firms are still able to decide to pay more or less than the prevailing wage.

RealPage also gave recommendations. Giving a salary range seems like the same thing.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Pave legal?

#5
Wage fixing is when multiple companies agree to set wages at a certain amount.

Sharing compensation data across companies doesn't necessarily mean wage fixing. Company A can use the compensation data from Company B to try and compete better for talent.

Not saying thats what it will be used for, but it's technically not wage fixing.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Pave legal?

#6

I believe wage-fixing would require companies to agree to…fix wages. Having knowledge of average compensation is not inherently problematic. Firms are still able to decide to pay more or less than the prevailing wage.

Do you actually believe they will be doing this?

Re: Ask HN: Why is Pave legal?

#8
Companies like Radford have been doing this for decades and are used by pretty much everyone, Pave is just a more efficient version of the same game.
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