Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Netflix has job with almost $1M listed salary range, to comply with new CA law

jobs.netflix.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 117 posts

Re: Netflix has job with almost $1M listed salary range, to comply with new CA law

#61

Post by teraflop »

canonica wrote: post #47

I'm shocked about their questions on their job application form! It's considered illegal to ask those questions in my country because they can be used for discrimination. Is this normal practice in the US? > What gender identity do you most closely identify with? > Are you a person of transgender experience? > Please select the race and/or ethnic identities you identify with > What sexual orientation do you most clos…

This is extremely normal in the US. Employers (above a certain size threshold) are required to ask these questions, and to report aggregated statistics to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on an annual basis.

But employees/candidates are not themselves required to answer the questions. And if they do, employers are forbidden from using the information for discriminatory purposes.

(Realistically, if somebody is intent on discriminating based on race/sex/etc., they're going to do it based on the candidate's self-presentation, regardless of how they answer the questionnaire.)

Re: Netflix has job with almost $1M listed salary range, to comply with new CA law

#62

Post by canonica »

random42_ wrote: post #58
canonica wrote: post #47

I'm shocked about their questions on their job application form! It's considered illegal to ask those questions in my country because they can be used for discrimination. Is this normal practice in the US? > What gender identity do you most closely identify with? > Are you a person of transgender experience? > Please select the race and/or ethnic identities you identify with > What sexual orientation do you most clos…

These questions are optional, in my experience. I’ve never seen a form in a job application where these were required.

In my country it's absolutely illegal to ask, no matter if voluntary or involuntary.

Re: Netflix has job with almost $1M listed salary range, to comply with new CA law

#63

Post by tylersmith »

Retric wrote: post #10
outside1234 wrote: post #3

$90000-$900000 seems like sort of a cop out on the spirit of the law

Presumably it’s not actually complying with the law. Try telling a Jude listing a salary range between minimum wage and 1 billion per year counts as salary disclosure. That said, this could easily become the norm should enough companies do the same thing.

It's unlikely a job is actually offering $1B, whereas many engineers get $1M+.

Re: Netflix has job with almost $1M listed salary range, to comply with new CA law

#64

Post by [deleted] »

ithkuil wrote: post #60
canonica wrote: post #47

I'm shocked about their questions on their job application form! It's considered illegal to ask those questions in my country because they can be used for discrimination. Is this normal practice in the US? > What gender identity do you most closely identify with? > Are you a person of transgender experience? > Please select the race and/or ethnic identities you identify with > What sexual orientation do you most clos…

I think the idea here is to use this information to "help" and "include" people, not to discriminate against them.

[deleted]

Re: Netflix has job with almost $1M listed salary range, to comply with new CA law

#65

Post by mightymikey »

dragonwriter wrote: post #48
endisneigh wrote: post #8

Unsurprising. The ca law unfortunately isn’t robust enough. Standard deviation and inter quartile range is necessary in order to make any real assessment here. Ideally mean and median too.

> The ca law unfortunately isn’t robust enough Maybe, though Netflix just seems to just be blatantly violating the law, and the probably-unreasonable width of the range isn’t the most bright-line way. ( Explicitly using total compensation instead of the mandatory salary or hourly wage is.)

Netflix famously pays entirely base salary, letting employees take what percentage as options.

In this case, they are reporting potential base because of their somewhat unique comp structure.

Re: Netflix has job with almost $1M listed salary range, to comply with new CA law

#66

Post by JumpCrisscross »

teraflop wrote: post #61
canonica wrote: post #47

I'm shocked about their questions on their job application form! It's considered illegal to ask those questions in my country because they can be used for discrimination. Is this normal practice in the US? > What gender identity do you most closely identify with? > Are you a person of transgender experience? > Please select the race and/or ethnic identities you identify with > What sexual orientation do you most clos…

This is extremely normal in the US. Employers (above a certain size threshold) are required to ask these questions, and to report aggregated statistics to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on an annual basis. But employees/candidates are not themselves required to answer the questions. And if they do, employers are forbidden from using the information for discriminatory purposes. (Realistically, if somebody…

Orientation and gender identity are new to me, though it’s been a minute since I applied for a job.

Re: Netflix has job with almost $1M listed salary range, to comply with new CA law

#67

Post by mightymikey »

andrewmutz wrote: post #54
tylersmith wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Avoid what behavior? If that's the possible range of salaries they'll offer for the role then they're doing exactly what the law intends.

Agreed. Based on what I've heard from others at Netflix, it is plausible that some engineers are making $900K cash comp.

Nearly all staff engineer and above are making close to, if not above, 900k cash comp, based on levels.fyi

Re: Netflix has job with almost $1M listed salary range, to comply with new CA law

#68

Post by tbrownaw »

canonica wrote: post #47

I'm shocked about their questions on their job application form! It's considered illegal to ask those questions in my country because they can be used for discrimination. Is this normal practice in the US? > What gender identity do you most closely identify with? > Are you a person of transgender experience? > Please select the race and/or ethnic identities you identify with > What sexual orientation do you most clos…

I think those are supposed to be for keeping statistics, there's some government place that companies sometimes have to report to.

Of course this somehow ends up with companies using "helps our dei score" as a major criterion for which candidate to pick.

Re: Netflix has job with almost $1M listed salary range, to comply with new CA law

#69

Post by dragonwriter »

danielvf wrote: post #52
dragonwriter wrote: post #38

This clearly does not comply with the law [0]. The listed range is based on total comp which it justifies with an appeal to Netflix’s “compensation philosophy”; the law, however, specifically defines the “pay scale” that must accompany a posting as being the “the salary or hourly wage range that the employer reasonably expects to pay for the position” [1], not total compensation, and the law does not include an excep…

Netflix is famous for its all cash compensation packages.

> Netflix is famous for its all cash total compensation packages.

Netflix uses “total compensation” to mean “total compensation excluding benefits”?

Or Netflix has no (including those required by federal and state law for an employer of their size) benefits?

(And it doesn’t, as it was previously reported to, have “free option” as part of its employee equity program that provides an amount equal to 5% of salary for stock option purchases, which would be very much a non-salary-or-hourly-wage part of total comp?)

Re: Netflix has job with almost $1M listed salary range, to comply with new CA law

#70

Post by smugma »

This posting has a greater range ($330,000 - $1,800,000): https://jobs.netflix.com/jobs/253949563

As the range is based on total comp, it makes sense. If you are at the bottom of that range (which is likely just the base salary), you will probably be laid off (Netflix is transparent about this). It's still a massive range. I wonder how much of that total comp range is due to them estimating a certain amount of volatility (50%? 100%?) in their stock price.

Post reply on HN