Do you reveal your wage to your co-workers?

[Slew Foot]

Our salaries are public info, so my co workers all know what everyone makes anyway.

 

[DainBramaged]

some

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: elmro
Pardon my buffoonery, but someone please explain what is unprofessional about gabbing about salary. If I ask someone at work who I relatively "trust" how they are doing salary wise, and they want to share the info - what is the problem? I am trying to gather as much information as possible to make sure that I am at least getting paid what I am worth. I can look to external factors like salary.com and other friends' in the industry, but why not look inwards as well.

As someone mentioned earlier: the employee is trying to get as much as possible for the work they do, while the employer is trying to pay out as little as possible for the work that needs to be done - it is called capitalism.

edit: fixed typo.

WOW!

You never, ever, ever talk about your salary to co-workers. Think real quick about what possible positive outcome can happen from this. I ONCE, and ONLY ONCE, revealed what my grade level was to co-workers, this wasn't even what I made, it was a wide range of salary and benefits. Immediately, within seconds there were "jebus! That's director level!!!! WTF!!!!"

There is one single and ultimate truth - you will be compensated what you are worth. It's up to you to determine what your worth is.

You never talk compensation in anyway shape or form to co-workers. To do so is detremental to you career and advancements. never, ever, ever, ever, ever tell people what you make.

What is wrong with telling someone you trust how much you make?
If I had family members working for the same company, I wouldn't hide such information from them.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Lothar
What is wrong with telling someone you trust how much you make?
If I had family members working for the same company, I wouldn't hide such information from them.

To each their own. The only ones that know what I make are the IRS.

My SO glanced at a pay check once. Ever since then there have been problems. Jealousy is an evil emotion.

 

[habib89]

yeah, if they ask.. i don't really care if other's make more than me.. if we're on equal footing, then it's my fault for not asking for more.. but yeah, no big to me

 

[eleison]

There was this guy at work who always kept to himself. We never know how much he made. We tried to ask him once, but he said that it wasn't anyone's busy. We assumed that he made more than us.

A few years later, while everyone was getting laid off, he finally revealled how much he made. He made 20K less than most of us. So in the 3 years he worked, he could have negotiated to make more money... but since he didn't share and we never told him how much we made, he was "happy" losing 60K...

So the moral of the story.. the more information you have, the better. Its the employees responsiblity to make sure he's making enough money. Not the empolyer.

If you feel like screwing over your fellow workers.. if you are making a lot more than everyone else and they are doing the same work... don't tell anyone... If they find out, they will demand more money.. meaning less money for you... but then this is only ok if you are an assh*le and don't mind that the company is ripping off some of their employees..

Personally, if I have good friends working with me, I would tell them just to make sure the company wasn't ripping them off...

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: elmro
I like to know what my fellow employees make - I want to know if I am getting ***** in the ***. If I'm doing 2X the work that some tool who's making 2X more than me, I use this knowledge to my advantage: I am less aprehensive to demand more money at review time. I of course would never reveal that I have this information. I am also cautious about the people I reveal my salary too - they better not drop my name in a management meeting.

The way I look at it is the company pays me what they think I'm worth. If they are intentionally screwing me, then so be it. Its up to me to find another employer who see more value in me. Come time to put in the two weeks, if they try to match what the other place is giving you, just say "Sorry, had you thought I was worth more to the company, it would be reflected in the pay to begin with and we both wouldn't be in this situation. I don't want you to feel like I'm extorting more money out of you because its really not about the money."

It's a business. They're going to pay you the lowest amount they think they can and still keep you. Speaking with co-workers about wages helps you to change your expectations and therefore change what your employer believes is the lowest amount you'll take and still work at the company. It's not about "intentionally screwing" you. It's about capitalism.

Sure it is. If they can get away with paying you with 20% less than your peers, why wouldn't they? Of course, its still your responsibility to check out different employers and find the which one best fits your criteria whether it be money/benefits/etc. Having said all that, its in the employers best interest to pay their employees fair wages because the costs associated with looking for and interviewing a potential hire can be significant.

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: Lothar

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: elmro
I like to know what my fellow employees make - I want to know if I am getting ***** in the ***. If I'm doing 2X the work that some tool who's making 2X more than me, I use this knowledge to my advantage: I am less aprehensive to demand more money at review time. I of course would never reveal that I have this information. I am also cautious about the people I reveal my salary too - they better not drop my name in a management meeting.

The way I look at it is the company pays me what they think I'm worth. If they are intentionally screwing me, then so be it. Its up to me to find another employer who see more value in me. Come time to put in the two weeks, if they try to match what the other place is giving you, just say "Sorry, had you thought I was worth more to the company, it would be reflected in the pay to begin with and we both wouldn't be in this situation. I don't want you to feel like I'm extorting more money out of you because its really not about the money."

How do you figure that they're "intentionally screwing you" without asking co-workers who you're close friends with about their salary to yours?

If there are no close co-workers in my particular "retail store X", I'll ask close friends who I know are working in the same state for the same "retail store X".

*note the emphasis on close*

If the company was screwing everyone in your department, how would you know you're being screwed in the first place? After all, you're getting paid the same as everyone else in the department so everything must be on the up and up, right?

 

[Lithium381]

only at part time jobs, when i was doing managment for a short time it was kept under wraps

 

[JEDIYoda]

never

 

[npoe1]

I do, only if I think that they will not make any mess, but I always tell them the amount after taxes.

 

[wetcat007]

Add another option for lying to people when they ask.

 

[chambersc]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Lothar
What is wrong with telling someone you trust how much you make?
If I had family members working for the same company, I wouldn't hide such information from them.

To each their own. The only ones that know what I make are the IRS.

My SO glanced at a pay check once. Ever since then there have been problems. Jealousy is an evil emotion.

your SO is jealous of your salary? ouch. that must be a sucky relationship.

 

[jinduy]

Originally posted by: RapidSnail
Worse is when colleagues or even friends reveal their pay to you and then expect you to tell them yours :roll:.

word

 

[hjo3]

No, I don't tell people what I make. Nor do I tell them how often I have sex or what my bowel movements look like. Some stuff is personal.

 

[Babbles]

Originally posted by: elmro
Pardon my buffoonery, but someone please explain what is unprofessional about gabbing about salary. If I ask someone at work who I relatively "trust" how they are doing salary wise, and they want to share the info - what is the problem? I am trying to gather as much information as possible to make sure that I am at least getting paid what I am worth. I can look to external factors like salary.com and other friends' in the industry, but why not look inwards as well.

As someone mentioned earlier: the employee is trying to get as much as possible for the work they do, while the employer is trying to pay out as little as possible for the work that needs to be done - it is called capitalism.

edit: fixed typo.

Salary information should be private no matter what. Companies owe it to the employee to keep salary information confidential and likewise employees owe it to the company to keep that information confidential as well. Your salary is not only your private information, but it is the companies private information as well. So many of you guys have blinders on and only think "me, me, me" and fail to understand that confidentiality can be a two-way street.

Once you start discussing salaries you are introducing some other factor which can cause workplace drama. More often than not there are very good reasons why a person may get paid more or less than other people.

Also I think some of you have a half-assed view of capitalism. Salary can include things more than the lowest amount required to get the work done (ever hear of bonuses? COLAs?).

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: elmro
I like to know what my fellow employees make - I want to know if I am getting ***** in the ***. If I'm doing 2X the work that some tool who's making 2X more than me, I use this knowledge to my advantage: I am less aprehensive to demand more money at review time. I of course would never reveal that I have this information. I am also cautious about the people I reveal my salary too - they better not drop my name in a management meeting.

The way I look at it is the company pays me what they think I'm worth. If they are intentionally screwing me, then so be it. Its up to me to find another employer who see more value in me. Come time to put in the two weeks, if they try to match what the other place is giving you, just say "Sorry, had you thought I was worth more to the company, it would be reflected in the pay to begin with and we both wouldn't be in this situation. I don't want you to feel like I'm extorting more money out of you because its really not about the money."

It's a business. They're going to pay you the lowest amount they think they can and still keep you. Speaking with co-workers about wages helps you to change your expectations and therefore change what your employer believes is the lowest amount you'll take and still work at the company. It's not about "intentionally screwing" you. It's about capitalism.

Sure it is. If they can get away with paying you with 20% less than your peers, why wouldn't they? Of course, its still your responsibility to check out different employers and find the which one best fits your criteria whether it be money/benefits/etc. Having said all that, its in the employers best interest to pay their employees fair wages because the costs associated with looking for and interviewing a potential hire can be significant.

You've done nothing but confirm my argument. If they can pay you 20% less than your co-workers, it's your fault, not theirs. They are in business to make a profit. They aren't paying you less because they don't like you or have a personal vendetta (unless you work at a horrible company). They're paying you less because you accept it and you stay there. Speaking with your co-workers helps you to realize that you are being underpaid and therefore you can change your employers idea of the lowest wage you'll accept.

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: elmro
I like to know what my fellow employees make - I want to know if I am getting ***** in the ***. If I'm doing 2X the work that some tool who's making 2X more than me, I use this knowledge to my advantage: I am less aprehensive to demand more money at review time. I of course would never reveal that I have this information. I am also cautious about the people I reveal my salary too - they better not drop my name in a management meeting.

The way I look at it is the company pays me what they think I'm worth. If they are intentionally screwing me, then so be it. Its up to me to find another employer who see more value in me. Come time to put in the two weeks, if they try to match what the other place is giving you, just say "Sorry, had you thought I was worth more to the company, it would be reflected in the pay to begin with and we both wouldn't be in this situation. I don't want you to feel like I'm extorting more money out of you because its really not about the money."

It's a business. They're going to pay you the lowest amount they think they can and still keep you. Speaking with co-workers about wages helps you to change your expectations and therefore change what your employer believes is the lowest amount you'll take and still work at the company. It's not about "intentionally screwing" you. It's about capitalism.

Sure it is. If they can get away with paying you with 20% less than your peers, why wouldn't they? Of course, its still your responsibility to check out different employers and find the which one best fits your criteria whether it be money/benefits/etc. Having said all that, its in the employers best interest to pay their employees fair wages because the costs associated with looking for and interviewing a potential hire can be significant.

You've done nothing but confirm my argument. If they can pay you 20% less than your co-workers, it's your fault, not theirs. They are in business to make a profit. They aren't paying you less because they don't like you or have a personal vendetta (unless you work at a horrible company). They're paying you less because you accept it and you stay there. Speaking with your co-workers helps you to realize that you are being underpaid and therefore you can change your employers idea of the lowest wage you'll accept.

And what if your coworkers are all underpaid but paid equally as you?

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: Babbles

Originally posted by: elmro
Pardon my buffoonery, but someone please explain what is unprofessional about gabbing about salary. If I ask someone at work who I relatively "trust" how they are doing salary wise, and they want to share the info - what is the problem? I am trying to gather as much information as possible to make sure that I am at least getting paid what I am worth. I can look to external factors like salary.com and other friends' in the industry, but why not look inwards as well.

As someone mentioned earlier: the employee is trying to get as much as possible for the work they do, while the employer is trying to pay out as little as possible for the work that needs to be done - it is called capitalism.

edit: fixed typo.

Salary information should be private no matter what. Companies owe it to the employee to keep salary information confidential and likewise employees owe it to the company to keep that information confidential as well. Your salary is not only your private information, but it is the companies private information as well. So many of you guys have blinders on and only think "me, me, me" and fail to understand that confidentiality can be a two-way street.

Once you start discussing salaries you are introducing some other factor which can cause workplace drama. More often than not there are very good reasons why a person may get paid more or less than other people.

Also I think some of you have a half-assed view of capitalism. Salary can include things more than the lowest amount required to get the work done (ever hear of bonuses? COLAs?).

So if I go to a job interview, is the prospective company allowed to ask how much I'm being paid at my current company?

 

[b0mbrman]

My coworkers can look up my wage online to the penny...

 

[elmro]

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: Babbles

Originally posted by: elmro
Pardon my buffoonery, but someone please explain what is unprofessional about gabbing about salary. If I ask someone at work who I relatively "trust" how they are doing salary wise, and they want to share the info - what is the problem? I am trying to gather as much information as possible to make sure that I am at least getting paid what I am worth. I can look to external factors like salary.com and other friends' in the industry, but why not look inwards as well.

As someone mentioned earlier: the employee is trying to get as much as possible for the work they do, while the employer is trying to pay out as little as possible for the work that needs to be done - it is called capitalism.

edit: fixed typo.

Salary information should be private no matter what. Companies owe it to the employee to keep salary information confidential and likewise employees owe it to the company to keep that information confidential as well. Your salary is not only your private information, but it is the companies private information as well. So many of you guys have blinders on and only think "me, me, me" and fail to understand that confidentiality can be a two-way street.

Once you start discussing salaries you are introducing some other factor which can cause workplace drama. More often than not there are very good reasons why a person may get paid more or less than other people.

Also I think some of you have a half-assed view of capitalism. Salary can include things more than the lowest amount required to get the work done (ever hear of bonuses? COLAs?).

So if I go to a job interview, is the prospective company allowed to ask how much I'm being paid at my current company?

Not sure how "legal" this is, but yes this happens all the time.

 

[DT4K]

One of two things is bound to happen if you discuss your pay with a colleague.
It's going to piss you off or it's going to piss them off.

With that said, I did discuss pay with my fellow developers at my last job. But only when I had already started looking for another job. It came up when we were discussing what complete and total B.S. "pay for performance" was. What it really meant was "everyone gets a 3% raise, whether they suck or kick ass"

 

[Special K]

How accurate are the distributions posted on websites like salary.com? If we assume the ranges are accurate, then can't you at least figure out a ballpark range for someone's salary if they just tell you what their job title/function is?

Also, to the posters who commented that sharing salary information is bad because you could have two people doing the same job for vastly differing amounts of money:

Don't most companies usually put a hard range of salaries on a given position? That is, they define position X to have a hard salary range of $70k - $85k (just making up numbers here), and to get above the upper limit would require a promotion to a new position?

The reason I ask this is because if the limits are in place, then you can only negotiate yourself up so high, right? I mean if the range for a job is $70k - $85k, wouldn't it be pretty unlikely to find someone doing the exact same job for $150k+?

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: Special K
Don't most companies usually put a hard range of salaries on a given position? That is, they define position X to have a hard salary range of $70k - $85k (just making up numbers here), and to get above the upper limit would require a promotion to a new position?

The reason I ask this is because if the limits are in place, then you can only negotiate yourself up so high, right? I mean if the range for a job is $70k - $85k, wouldn't it be pretty unlikely to find someone doing the exact same job for $150k+?

For most larger companies, that's true. Each job has a defined salary range and to earn more than the upper limit would be unusual - say, when someone has been in the same job for 25 years and they allow cost-of-living raises above the maximum.

But there are times when you could have people doing what appears to be the same job, but in fact different people have different titles. For example - Junior Project Manager, Project Manager and Senior Project Manager. Each of those three titles would have different salary ranges but from a casual glance they might all look to be doing the same thing.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Special K
How accurate are the distributions posted on websites like salary.com? If we assume the ranges are accurate, then can't you at least figure out a ballpark range for someone's salary if they just tell you what their job title/function is?

Also, to the posters who commented that sharing salary information is bad because you could have two people doing the same job for vastly differing amounts of money:

Don't most companies usually put a hard range of salaries on a given position? That is, they define position X to have a hard salary range of $70k - $85k (just making up numbers here), and to get above the upper limit would require a promotion to a new position?

The reason I ask this is because if the limits are in place, then you can only negotiate yourself up so high, right? I mean if the range for a job is $70k - $85k, wouldn't it be pretty unlikely to find someone doing the exact same job for $150k+?

I've seen ranges in the 85-135 range for a specific grade level. Title does not equal grade level.

So, let's take the bottom end scale - 60-85K for a particular position and title. This position/title can scale 3 grade levels. The higher of that grade is 80-130K. So on the top end, for the same job/title you can have somebody making twice what the guy next to him is making.