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LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

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Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#81
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is what the _current_ content says: One of the interesting dichotomies with compensation data is that many users want this information, but don’t want to have their individual data exposed or connected back to them. Salary information is personal to each of our members. With this in mind, and consistent with our Members First organizational philosophy, one of the first goals we established when we set out to emb…

Then when someone resubmits new data, how do they know that a previously submitted data point is now stale and shouldn't be used any more?

What I think happens:

1. You submit a salary info struct, which includes time of submission. The struct does not contain a userId.

2. Your account's lastUpdatedSalaryDate gets updated, with only day/week/month level precision.

Someone with access to the entire database may be able to connect the two if the salary set for your job is small enough.

Then they weigh salary information based on how fresh the entry is. Stale entries don't get a good weight, and you updating your salary is just another info point, and it might go into another bucket if you got a title change (ex software eng -> sr. software eng.). If you got promoted, then the old salary info is probably still relevant for people in lower level positions.

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#82
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd suggest you to read https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2016/10/bringing-salar... , the section about privacy.

Here is what the _current_ content says: One of the interesting dichotomies with compensation data is that many users want this information, but don’t want to have their individual data exposed or connected back to them. Salary information is personal to each of our members. With this in mind, and consistent with our Members First organizational philosophy, one of the first goals we established when we set out to emb…

  Because we proactively separate a member’s submission data from their 
  Member ID when compensation data is submitted, it enables us to 
  secure the system in such a way that we cannot even support the 
  ability for a member to update their previously submitted salary 
  information - they have to resubmit.

How is this possible? If the salary data is not associated to the user in any way can't a user submit their salary over and over again drastically swaying the aggregate salaries?

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#83
post #51

I still don't understand what people are using LinkedIn for.

I use it to chuckle over emails suggesting I endorse people I don't know for skills I'm not certain they have. I also enjoy when people who don't know me endorse me for skills they can't possibly know I have, and may not even possess. It's a cute game.

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#84
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd suggest you to read https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2016/10/bringing-salar... , the section about privacy.

I have. I'm aware I have a strong bias against LinkedIn when it comes to their data-handling. The entire company is built around selling me to recruiters, so I'm very wary about their collection of my employment information. Edit. For example, I'm not sure if this current policy will continue into the future. It's easy for me to get used to handing them my salary information and for them to change the privacy policy…

The entire company is built around selling me to recruiters

I think you may have fixed this data accuracy debate/issue. If they ask recruiters only they may get nearly-accurate data.

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#86
post #9

It seems like the areas are really limited. Best I could find for my central Mass location was "Greater Boston Area" which really skews the numbers up (obviously cost of living in Boston is higher)

Yep, I may not be the target demographic (working remotely as software developer, hiring remote software developers for personal projects) but it kind of sucks for remote-first companies (i.e. fully-remote) also, as it requires a location to make comparisons to.

The map at the bottom of the landing page would be cool to have as a proper tool (seeing salary-per-title comparisons across the map), but I can't seem to find it anywhere for actual use.

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#87
post #9

It seems like the areas are really limited. Best I could find for my central Mass location was "Greater Boston Area" which really skews the numbers up (obviously cost of living in Boston is higher)

They can't even find info on SREs for the Greater LA area yet.

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is what the _current_ content says: One of the interesting dichotomies with compensation data is that many users want this information, but don’t want to have their individual data exposed or connected back to them. Salary information is personal to each of our members. With this in mind, and consistent with our Members First organizational philosophy, one of the first goals we established when we set out to emb…

Because we proactively separate a member’s submission data from their Member ID when compensation data is submitted, it enables us to secure the system in such a way that we cannot even support the ability for a member to update their previously submitted salary information - they have to resubmit. How is this possible? If the salary data is not associated to the user in any way can't a user submit their salary over…

Presumably they're tracking when the user last submitted a salary, but not what they submitted.

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#89
post #39

Hopefully LinkedIn won't ask me for my salary in the future. Cause I definitely don't trust them with my salary info. They'll sell it to everyone - recruiters, other companies...

I'd suggest you to read https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2016/10/bringing-salar... , the section about privacy.

LinkedIn waited several years without letting me know that my account information had been hacked. For me at least they lost all credibility so reading their "privacy policy" would be a waste of time.

Re: LinkedIn launches Salary to chart what we earn

#90
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…

I've thought about this as well. Ultimately you need access to some pretty private data. One thought I've had is to use the mint/intuit APIs to get a list of a persons transactions in their bank account and find the ones that occur every 2 weeks, etc. Or possibly have users upload paystubs, though you'd have to have someway to verify. I'm sure that's possible.

Even if users were willing, this would be woefully inaccurate information. Mint shows take-home pay. But you have to keep in mind ...

  * People contribute between 0 to X% to a 401k. 
    This couldn't be deduced from take-home.
  * Many companies have a Employee Stock Purchase Program, 
    which is deducted from payroll.
  * Some (Many?) programmers get a large chunk of 
    compensation in options or RSUs.
I think self-reported is likely the only way to get numbers without some extremely invasive requests.
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