Tell HN: Salary data is for sale • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#171

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:43 AM UTC

tdeck wrote: post #82

jf wrote: post #30

Learning that this website exists, and then finding detailed and accurate information in my record is what convinced me to start sharing my salary data with my peers. As I see it, this database is a breach of an implicit social contract between me and the companies that I work for. Since my employers apparently have no issues sharing my salary with their peers, I see no reason not to do the same with my peers.

This kind of belies every company's excuse for not having comp transparency - that it's proprietary information they don't want competitors to know. Not only do they share these details on specific employees, they also provide percentile data to HR consultancies that use that to help set salary bands. Ever wonder when a company says they pay X% of market? They know that because everyone is sharing this info and they'…

[deleted]

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#172

Post by ralph84 » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:43 AM UTC

registeredcorn wrote: post #87

vulcan01 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to. Your employer can give this info to whoever they want, and many give this data to Equifax or one of the other credit agencies. Also, you might give your bank employment details, and your bank will most likely send that info to a credit agency as well. There's not much of an escape.

What exactly do employers and banks stand to gain from sharing this information? Is it an exchange of information for money?

For employers it offloads employment and salary verification. Instead of having to pay someone to answer verification calls all day they just upload the data to The Work Number and let them handle it.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#173

Post by what_ever » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:44 AM UTC

hansvm wrote: post #165

what_ever wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the system not ask for SSN to pull this data? If yes, how did Google get your SSN? Disc: Googler.

Google asks for SSN for background checks and whatnot.

I guess. I always thought b/g checks are done via third party but I don't recall being asked for SSN during that step. It's been a while so I guess I am not remembering right. Thanks.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#174

Post by getcrunk » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:44 AM UTC

withinrafael wrote: post #69

For those curious, I requested my Employment Data Report. Here's what was in it: Pages 1-2: Dear xxx, Thank you for requesting your Employment Data Report. Your Employment Data Report includes all employment data sent to The Work Number by your employer(s). An important document titled "A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act" is also enclosed. Great care has been taken to report this information…

How did you request the report?

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#175

Post by varenc » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:45 AM UTC

staunch wrote: post #115

varenc wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow placing a freeze requires filling out a PDF form, attaching a scan of your ID, and then sending it in over email, mail, or fax. The PDF lacks built in form fields you can type in. The extra friction is probably a feature: https://assets.equifax.com/wfs/theworknumber/assets/twn_Empl... (the exif data on that PDF shows the name of the employee that created it and that they used Word 2010...) The Equifax CCPA reques…

When I submit the myprivacy.equifax.com validation it hangs at "Processing..." indefinitely. #AbolishCreditAgencies

Check if an ad blocker might be interfering? I finished my CCPA request in ~2 minutes and it only required that I do SMS verification. Presumably because the name, phone, address, and email all matched records they had on file for me...

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#176

Post by kmonsen » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:46 AM UTC

School-Cotton wrote: post #134

Just checked it: Amazon and Facebook are both in here.

Actually for me Google and Facebook is there, but Amazon is not.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#177

Post by detaro » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:46 AM UTC

throwawaygh wrote: post #158

detaro wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then I'm not sure what the point of your post was. That "but she has a music degree!" is the least relevant part of evaluating if someone is qualified for such a CISO role or not. Someone with the "wrong" degree but talent and relevant experience would easily beat someone with a fancy "Masters of Information Security" degree that then muddled around in less relevant areas. Focusing on people's degrees is almost alw…

> Someone with the "wrong" degree but talent and relevant experience would easily beat someone with a fancy "Masters of Information Security" degree that then muddled around in less relevant areas. Sure, totally agreed. > Focusing on people's degrees is almost always the wrong measure in IT. Maybe 20 years ago. (I was there.) Today, asking for exceptional technical depth and a proven track-record of leadership is not…

And the linked article and the common references to it highlight almost exclusively "wrong degree/education" instead of "no relevant experience/track-record" (if that's the case, no clue what her experience looked like on paper. but the article also brushes it away with a sentence just to focus back on education). That's my problem with it.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#178

Post by BeefySwain » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:46 AM UTC

davidsawyer wrote: post #161

BeefySwain wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hijacking here to say, literally all you need to get access to someones employment + salary history is their SSN and birthdate. edit: and a past employer that used this system Birthdays are extremely easy to get (public record), and I seem to recall a specific large organization leaking a bunch of SSN's not too long ago.......

And you'd need to know a past employer, right? I couldn't seem to find a way to get access to the info without inputting an employer first.

Good catch, I'll add that.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#179

Post by Dave_Rosenthal » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:47 AM UTC

I got my report but the data was way off. Base salaries reported too high (~2x), bonuses in the ballpark (but wrong), and RSUs reported too low (~2x). There is a lot of detail in the report that gives a false impression that they have the exact figures but they certainly do not appear to in all cases.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#180

Post by throwawayboise » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:47 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #152

snambi wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all employees share their salary information with each other, it becomes a headache for the employer. Each employee may quote the other person's salary demanding a raise. This is the reason behind the "keep your data confidential" idea.

I don't disagree with this. My experience though is that a more common reason it is a headache for some managers if their reports are sharing salary information is that they don't know how to have a conversation with someone about their performance. In particular their less than great performance. So employee B comes in and says, "Hey employee A makes 15% more than I do and we have the same job! I even have more expe…

That's not gaslighting. It's just lying.