LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn • Hacker News Board

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#171

Post by mdorazio » Thu, Nov 03, 2016, 3:55 PM UTC

vostok wrote: post #156

mdorazio wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you're right. But base salary is the only reliable number to use for comparisons. If we get into things like startup stock options, value is effectively zero on a probability scale. Monetary bonuses are paid out based on all kinds of factors that may or may not come to pass, and have their own taxes associated with them. The only reliable extra comp I can think of would be RSUs and similar at large tech companie…

In my industry bonuses are as reliable as public company RSUs. To my knowledge, there is less public information on RSU grants and bonuses so I am puzzled by your last sentence.

Where have you looked? For example, a quick search on Quora will tell you the range of RSUs handed out to employees at Google at various levels.

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#172

Post by Fifer82 » Thu, Nov 03, 2016, 4:04 PM UTC

refurb wrote: post #126

Fifer82 wrote: post #61

Completely unproven, but all I see this doing, is driving down wages. No one will say "I think we are not paying enough, looking at this average". It will be "We are paying far too much, lets bring ourselves inline".

I'd have to disagree. Large companies spend a lot of money on their approach to compensation. They hire outside consultants to benchmark their pay relative to competitors. I've worked at jobs where pay has gone up due to such engagements. Having this data on LinkedIn isn't going to change that process.

Most people don't work at large companies though.

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#173

Post by plandis » Thu, Nov 03, 2016, 5:23 PM UTC

hamandcheese wrote: post #3

wdewind wrote: post #2

Self reported salaries are just never going to be a good data source. I was hoping since this was LinkedIn and they have tons of resources they'd be doing something different, but they don't seem to have made any progress on the many attempts people make each year to do salary analysis in this way. Anyone have any good ideas for actually gathering accurate salary data?

What incentive do people have to lie about their salary (assuming it's anonymous)?

Assuming you wanted to work for LinkedIn and Microsoft I'd definitely encourage you to lie about your current salary just in case they were so inclined to look it up and leverage it against you.

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#174

Post by ghurtado » Thu, Nov 03, 2016, 6:52 PM UTC

clifanatic wrote: post #118

ghurtado wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but you would need massive collusion with millions of developers that you have never met in order to pull this stunt. I don't think that sounds very plausible.

Well, we have you and we have me - who else is on board?

Hate to say it, but you only have you so far.

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#175

Post by mswen » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 2:34 AM UTC

morgante wrote: post #135

mswen wrote: post #35

Awhile back I reserved the domain developersalarybenchmarks.com HR departments can purchase salary benchmarks from companies like Mercer. Everyone on the developers side would like better benchmarks that are free or nearly free to even the odds when negotiating job offers or raises from current employers. I haven't created a site yet in part because of the self-reporting problems. Will developers trust an unknown sta…

In practice, I think the problem is that everyone is fundamentally a market of 1. I have never seen a salary site (including Glassdoor, LinkedIn, or step) come even remotely close to what I actually make. Years of experience, education, and title are never enough to gauge performance or pay.

Clearly location and fairly granular skill profiles would help. Other factors that might help include the type and size of the company.

Can you think of other factors that would help?