Companies’ open-salary policies bring pay inequities out in the open, prompting awkward conversations among employees and managers about who are paid too little or too much.

Story Synopsis | Salaries Revealed

Open salaries: humbling for some while empowering others.
For many workers, self-worth is directly tied to annual earnings. And when those two don’t match AND it’s publicly disclosed – the reveal can be cringeworthy.

Yet, In some large and small companies, like Buffer, employee salaries are public knowledge, and for others, like SumAll, individual salaries are available internally.

In fact, learning you make less than the new hire who just joined your department can drive you to distraction as it did one at SumAll. The Account Executive, named in the article, learned the new hire was making $10-grand more, and it bothered her so much she asked why.

What she learned is, the new hire determined what skills she’d need in the new job and then discovered the market value. Next, she researched what others, those with the same skills and experience, were getting in the same position. When the new prospect was hired, she negotiated for the appropriate salary. Then, using the new hire’s information, the account executive began to research for her next pay raise.

Keys
1- know your worth
2- see the value of your contribution
3- research salaries by industries

In the past, revealing one’s salary was taboo; then, in 2009, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed into law by President Obama, put the spotlight on the need for transparency in salaries. Today, it’s not uncommon for workers to learn what their colleagues earn.
Yet, salary transparency makes some employees uncomfortable, but others are using open salaries as a tool to get paid what they believe they are worth on the job.

Source: Open Salaries: the Good, the Bad and the Awkward  By Sue Shellenbarger (Jan. 12, 2016, 1:48 p.m. ET -WSJ)