Blizzard workers share salaries in revolt over wage disparities

Post by baddox » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:00 AM UTC

scottLobster wrote: post #85

woodruffw wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm almost certain my pay is different from my colleagues, but I've bargained like hell to get it. When I was hired, every time we've been acquired. I'm no executive either, I'm just a developer with a proven history of give-a-damn. Whether or not pay discrepancies can be fair, this doesn't sound like a case of them being fair. What happens to your (hypothetical) colleague who gives just as much of a damn as you do…

I'd argue your first example is actually fair. Someone who has trouble negotiating in professional circles is going to have issues far beyond the workplace, if nothing else they're going to get repeatably screwed buying a car, and they should work on that. Why shouldn't the more aggressive, more strategic people earn more on average? I'd argue they give more of a damn by definition. The ability to project social forc…

Post by ithkuil » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:01 AM UTC

satyrnein wrote: post #60

sokoloff wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t see any reason to think that all engineers contribute the same amount of value (and therefore paying different amounts is entirely reasonable). Thought experiment: if you were going to form a startup and needed two other engineers, would you know across your history which ones to pick from and which ones to avoid?

I wholeheartedly agree with your first sentence. However, the thought experiment feels vulnerable to bias and other factors unrelated to performance, (just like the salary negotiation process you're comparing it to).

Post by baddox » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:02 AM UTC

donatj wrote: post #35

virtuous_signal wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was teaching college math classes, there were people who tried to argue for more partial credit after exams. Not to get into specifics but most of the requests came from the same demographic. If I as an instructor hadn't watched out for this and set a universal, and uniformly applied policy (and if I had an agreeable enough personality), then I would have consistently made the scores of this group higher. Woul…

Fortune favors the bold.

Post by radegast » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:04 AM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #138

overgard wrote: post #132

At risk of sounding like a mercenary, in my experience the only realistic way to get paid your market value is to be on the market. It's just way easier to get a pay bump by switching jobs. If you wait for your employer to give you a raise, they usually will drag their feet for as long as possible and then give you something disappointing. One consequence of this is, in companies that are willing to do it, it can be…

>The cost of recruiting and interviewing candidates, not to mention training new hires, is huge. Clearly it's not more than the cost of providing higher pay. Most people would rather not switch jobs as there is considerable risk involved if you're not performing labor that results in very profitable sales. People would rather work with the devil they know than the devil they don't, so unless they're in upwardly mobil…

Post by baddox » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:05 AM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #31

donatj wrote: post #25

So possibly unpopular point of view here, maybe not on HN, but I think pay discrepancies can be entirely fair. I'm almost certain my pay is different from my colleagues, but I've bargained like hell to get it. When I was hired, every time we've been acquired. I'm no executive either, I'm just a developer with a proven history of give-a-damn. I think it's perfectly fair game in a job where it's hard to replace individ…

I don’t see any reason to think that all engineers contribute the same amount of value (and therefore paying different amounts is entirely reasonable). Thought experiment: if you were going to form a startup and needed two other engineers, would you know across your history which ones to pick from and which ones to avoid?