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

Story Synopsis | Salaries Revealed
Open salaries can be humbling for some and empowering for others, highlighting a range of emotional responses in the workplace.

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, such as Buffer, employee salaries are publicly known, while 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 that the new hire was making $10,000 more, and it bothered her so much that she asked why.

What she learned is that 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 a salary that was appropriate. Using the information the new hire shared, the account executive began researching 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.
While salary transparency may make some employees uncomfortable, others use open salaries as a tool to achieve a compensation level they believe accurately reflects their worth.

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

Update on post previously published Aug 15, 2016