The Value of Being Transparent, Especially When It's Hard • Hacker News Board

Re: The Value of Being Transparent, Especially When It's Hard

#11

Post by swombat » Fri, Jul 31, 2015, 8:43 AM UTC

stevenklein wrote: post #3

aidanhs wrote: post #2

The links in this article go to some very good case studies on getting the correct tone for downtime status updates. However, I found the most interesting link the one about open salaries [1] - are there any other businesses doing similar things? I'd be inclined to consider it a very strong mark in their favour as a workplace. [1] https://open.bufferapp.com/introducing-open-salaries-at-buff...

Good question -- I personally don't know of anyone else who is doing the whole "Open Salaries" thing. Does anyone else?

My company (GrantTree) does totally open salaries. AMA...

Re: The Value of Being Transparent, Especially When It's Hard

#12

Post by _benedict » Fri, Jul 31, 2015, 11:35 AM UTC

aidanhs wrote: post #2

The links in this article go to some very good case studies on getting the correct tone for downtime status updates. However, I found the most interesting link the one about open salaries [1] - are there any other businesses doing similar things? I'd be inclined to consider it a very strong mark in their favour as a workplace. [1] https://open.bufferapp.com/introducing-open-salaries-at-buff...

The idea of open salaries is great, but ultimately it turns all salary negotiations into either a promotion or a collective bargaining situation. The former is obviously harder to obtain, and the latter is very much out of fashion. Organising a labour union in tech seems unlikely to become common place in the near term.

So this trend would shift the cards to the employer unreasonably AFAICT, working to keep salaries suppressed.

Remember that when posting for a new position, salaries are pegged to prevalent market rates. Even bad negotiators as a result benefit from the upward pressure on salaries introduced by good negotiators. If all companies started fixing salaries (which is so far the only way I've seen open salaries implemented), a lot of upward pressure on salaries would be removed, harming all employees, not just the good negotiators.

Re: The Value of Being Transparent, Especially When It's Hard

#13

Post by irishcoffee » Fri, Jul 31, 2015, 1:34 PM UTC

swombat wrote: post #10

irishcoffee wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, I think all government agencies have open pay scales and everyone knows exactly how much everyone else makes.

Open pay scales are a start, but non-transparent salaries can easily hide in there if all you have is pay scales. You need two things for actual salary transparency: 1) Everyone's actual salary is accessible - as in, the actual amount they're paid each month, the transaction. This way everyone can know that there's nothing unfair hiding in there. 2) The reason why everyone's salary is what it is is transparent and ac…

1.) No, that's asinine. Look up the tax records of someone if you want to know that information. There are reasons people would want to keep their paycheck private, for very legitimate reasons.

2.) That first sentence doesn't make any sense. The second sentence is also asinine. You get on a pay band based on merit at work. If that isn't the case, or if you don't like politics at work, find a new job.. or realize there will always be politics at work.

I'm not sure if you're a huge privacy advocate, but if you are, these ideas are a direct contradiction to privacy. Can't have my phone metadata, but if I can't see your pay stub life isn't fair.

Re: The Value of Being Transparent, Especially When It's Hard

#14

Post by bcg1 » Fri, Jul 31, 2015, 4:51 PM UTC

swombat wrote: post #10

irishcoffee wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, I think all government agencies have open pay scales and everyone knows exactly how much everyone else makes.

Open pay scales are a start, but non-transparent salaries can easily hide in there if all you have is pay scales. You need two things for actual salary transparency: 1) Everyone's actual salary is accessible - as in, the actual amount they're paid each month, the transaction. This way everyone can know that there's nothing unfair hiding in there. 2) The reason why everyone's salary is what it is is transparent and ac…

I think this level of detail is pretty good, even though it doesn't have specific transactions necessarily:

http://seethroughny.net/index.php?cID=375

AFAIK this is compiled by a non-governmental organization however.