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Introducing Open Salaries at Buffer

open.bufferapp.com

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Re: Introducing Open Salaries at Buffer

#2
It’s one thing to have a transparent salary policy, it’s a whole another world to publicly blog about people’s salary with a link to their Twitter account.

I hope all employees agreed to have their salary published on the buffer blog.

Kudos to them for trying something different.

Re: Introducing Open Salaries at Buffer

#4
post #2

It’s one thing to have a transparent salary policy, it’s a whole another world to publicly blog about people’s salary with a link to their Twitter account. I hope all employees agreed to have their salary published on the buffer blog. Kudos to them for trying something different.

Yeah, I think it would have been more than enough to simply explain the formula and provide some anonymized examples.

On another note, I am quite surprised at how underpaid some of their positions seem. Senior iOS engineer barely cracking 100k in a very expensive market...

Re: Introducing Open Salaries at Buffer

#5
post #4
post #2

It’s one thing to have a transparent salary policy, it’s a whole another world to publicly blog about people’s salary with a link to their Twitter account. I hope all employees agreed to have their salary published on the buffer blog. Kudos to them for trying something different.

Yeah, I think it would have been more than enough to simply explain the formula and provide some anonymized examples. On another note, I am quite surprised at how underpaid some of their positions seem. Senior iOS engineer barely cracking 100k in a very expensive market...

Yeah, that's pretty ballsy. Seems like they're exposing themselves to unnecessary poaching risk. And what do they do in that situation? What if someone has a competing offer and they want to keep them around? Offer a bonus?

Re: Introducing Open Salaries at Buffer

#7
I like this idea, but with a few modifications:

* Names should be anonymous. Everyone knows where they are within the group and can determine if its fair without knowing exactly who makes what.

* It should include options and bonuses. In some companies non-salary compensation dwarfs salaries, and it's dishonest to point to a CEO salary and say "Look, he only makes 1.something X what regular people do."

* Keep it internal to the company. No point in giving the competition an exact target or requiring whole company buy in before you do it.

* Allow people to redact their own information, but display it as having been redacted. If enough people do that, or just management does it, everyone will sense that things are unfair.

Re: Introducing Open Salaries at Buffer

#9
Can't say a lot of good things about a company that pays a "Chief Happiness Officer" more than most of its engineers. I know plenty of startups that seem to be doing alright in the customer service department without an overpaid exec heading it.

Does she really contribute more to the bottom line than any of the other 4 underpaid engineers?

Re: Introducing Open Salaries at Buffer

#10
post #2

It’s one thing to have a transparent salary policy, it’s a whole another world to publicly blog about people’s salary with a link to their Twitter account. I hope all employees agreed to have their salary published on the buffer blog. Kudos to them for trying something different.

I never understood the hypocrisy about hiding your salary.
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