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Europe to End "Salary Secrecy": Employee Salaries to Become Public by 2026

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Re: Europe to End "Salary Secrecy": Employee Salaries to Become Public by 2026

#51

Post by GuB-42 »

matsemann wrote: post #5

At least in Norway it's already public what everyone makes. I can look up the taxable salary information about anyone (so salary after deductions but it's probably ok close). Also, even without that, salary of public employees is part of the information you can request to view. I feel discussing salaries is quite common here. At work someone made a spreadsheet everyone fills their salary into if they want, experience…

Everyone? I may misunderstand but it looks to me like a serious invasion of privacy and with a high potential for abuse.

The lesser form of abuse would be for a shop to loop up how wealthy a customer is for targeted advertising. But it can also be used to see whose kid is worth kidnapping, and everything in between, like refusing tenants with low salaries.

Re: Europe to End "Salary Secrecy": Employee Salaries to Become Public by 2026

#52

Post by marzipanWhale »

ericmay wrote: post #16
matsemann wrote: post #5

At least in Norway it's already public what everyone makes. I can look up the taxable salary information about anyone (so salary after deductions but it's probably ok close). Also, even without that, salary of public employees is part of the information you can request to view. I feel discussing salaries is quite common here. At work someone made a spreadsheet everyone fills their salary into if they want, experience…

Does the salary info include investment income or income from other sources, or only salaries from corporations? If you work as a barista would your taxable information be available as well?

You can see the following three numbers:

Wealth, Income, Calculated tax

Here's what it says for me (I've censored some stuff with ):

Born: 19** Wealth: 5** *** Postal code/area: **** Income: 4** *** Tax Municipality: *** Calculated tax: 1** ***

Re: Europe to End "Salary Secrecy": Employee Salaries to Become Public by 2026

#53

Post by diggan »

jimbob45 wrote: post #41
jacobp100 wrote: post #10

The title makes it very easy to make incorrect assumptions about how this works. It’s not individual salaries that are made public, just ranges and averages

Having a range at all greatly reduces individual bargaining power. My understanding is that the EU has had a terrible time recently attracting and retaining both businesses and talent. I don't see how this will help solve their issue.

How does more information reduce the bargaining power for potential employees? In my mind its the opposite, but maybe I miss something obvious?

Re: Europe to End "Salary Secrecy": Employee Salaries to Become Public by 2026

#54

Post by craigmorrison »

hammock wrote: post #32
systemtest wrote: post #24

Hate to be pedantic but it's European Union or European Parliament, not Europe. And it's a directive, not a law. Also, "Employees Will Know How Much Their Colleagues Earn" is a false claim as this only reports salary ranges for the function and the average salary. 2026 is only for the Spanish implementation of this directive. And for Spain, it's only large companies that need to provide it by then.

Not to be a cynic but sometimes it seems directives are enforced more than laws in the EU.

I’m not sure what that means. Directives are only enforceable through the laws that member states pass to implement them.

Re: Europe to End "Salary Secrecy": Employee Salaries to Become Public by 2026

#55

Post by jppope »

So question for HN on this topic:

I've always considered salaries not being public to be better for me because historically I've been able to negotiate well when we get to that stage, but I know that this isn't the case for everyone. I am also aware that employers can pay for previous w2 salary info (assuming the company used a major payroll provider)... and there are other strategies that companies use that gives them an edge in negotiations... but for the most part it seems like making salary info public really only hurts employees at lower compensation levels and will reduce income because the negotiation step will go away. That is workers will no longer be able to benefit from asymmetric information.

It seems like people view this as a progressive measure that will help workers, but I don't see it that way at all. I think it will help SOME workers but the most competent, resourceful workers.

What am I missing? Why are governments (e.g. Colorado, EU) wanting to enact these sorts of directives?

Re: Europe to End "Salary Secrecy": Employee Salaries to Become Public by 2026

#56

Post by ithkuil »

jimbob45 wrote: post #41
jacobp100 wrote: post #10

The title makes it very easy to make incorrect assumptions about how this works. It’s not individual salaries that are made public, just ranges and averages

Having a range at all greatly reduces individual bargaining power. My understanding is that the EU has had a terrible time recently attracting and retaining both businesses and talent. I don't see how this will help solve their issue.

Are the ranges prescriptive or descriptive?

Re: Europe to End "Salary Secrecy": Employee Salaries to Become Public by 2026

#57

Post by patall »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #15
matsemann wrote: post #5

At least in Norway it's already public what everyone makes. I can look up the taxable salary information about anyone (so salary after deductions but it's probably ok close). Also, even without that, salary of public employees is part of the information you can request to view. I feel discussing salaries is quite common here. At work someone made a spreadsheet everyone fills their salary into if they want, experience…

Assuming I was Norwegian and for some reason was getting paid way more than my coworkers, could I format my deductions so that it looked like I was paid on par with them, but be able to recover most of the money later?

In Sweden, you could do löneväxling, effectively transferring some of your salary to an investment account to be taxed when you cash out after retirement. That might make it look like you earn less on your taxes.

Note though that while people in the nordics are highly individualistic, most would never even think about such an idea of screwing over their colleagues. There are good reasons for löneväxling, but this is not one of them

Re: Europe to End "Salary Secrecy": Employee Salaries to Become Public by 2026

#58

Post by NightlyDev »

systemtest wrote: post #24

Hate to be pedantic but it's European Union or European Parliament, not Europe. And it's a directive, not a law. Also, "Employees Will Know How Much Their Colleagues Earn" is a false claim as this only reports salary ranges for the function and the average salary. 2026 is only for the Spanish implementation of this directive. And for Spain, it's only large companies that need to provide it by then.

I agree. The author seems to be confused about the difference between EU and Europe.

Some places in Europe, peoples personal income, fortune, and tax, is already publicly available. But that is not true for the EU.

Re: Europe to End "Salary Secrecy": Employee Salaries to Become Public by 2026

#60

Post by ericmay »

marzipanWhale wrote: post #52
ericmay wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the salary info include investment income or income from other sources, or only salaries from corporations? If you work as a barista would your taxable information be available as well?

You can see the following three numbers: Wealth, Income, Calculated tax Here's what it says for me (I've censored some stuff with ): Born: 19** Wealth: 5** *** Postal code/area: **** Income: 4** *** Tax Municipality: *** Calculated tax: 1** ***

Cool - thank you for the information. I was just curious.
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