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I got my increment letter today, and at the rate I’m going, I’ll only be hitting RM100k annual salary in 6 years’ time. That’s not too bad. I’ll be able to afford a Toyota Vios by then, feed 2 children, and own my own house. Live the Malaysian dream.
Knowing what others earn is about having control over your life
I was talking to a friend of mine about salaries. We all rate salaries very differently, because we all have different friends. Our friends are sometimes our only lens into the corporate world, that’s layered with bureaucracy, hierarchy, and politics and a whole lot of other stuff we can’t quite make out.
The problem with that is that all of us are in the trees. Which is why I felt it was good to post up that interview with a recruitment agent. At least everyone can take a look at a snapshot of what people are earning nowadays.
So, everyone should just go to http://www.glassdoor.com right now, sign up, post your salaries, and give your employers a piece of your mind, because it’s all anonymous anyway. No one will ever know it was you. I told my friend that I signed up for glassdoor and put in my salary and company feedback, and even though I was the only person in my company in the whole world to do that, he couldn’t find out anything about me there.
So, trust me, it’s good for the whole world that everyone knows what everyone is earning. It’s mitigated anarchy. It’s good because you’ll know where you stand, the faster the better, because you’ll be able to make a decision about where you stand, and about what to do with your life. Yes, it’s good that you have control over your life.
The corporate ladder isn’t linear all the time
Contrary to popular belief, learning what the other guy earns isn’t about getting better up the ladder. The reason is because at the end of the day, everyone is accountable to themselves whether this is right for them or not. Not everyone wants to become a CEO. Not everyone wants to suck up to the boss and earn big bucks. Not everyone wants to be a stunt driver.
But what everyone wants is FAIRNESS. And fairness is a very hard thing to measure. But as a start, for things to be fair, it has to be open. So, at least, knowing what the other guy earns solves a bit of that. Because it’s not the salary amount that really matters, it’s knowing that really matters. Because knowing helps you make a decision about your life.
Companies don’t want you to know how much everyone is earning
Now, I was actually lying that it’s good for everyone knows what everyone earns.
Companies actually can lose out in situations like these, because a lot of companies can leverage on a lot of things if it does - FUD, the law (yes sometimes it can protect businesses as much as it can protect employees), politics, corporate hierarchy… anything it can leverage on, it will.
Why? Because it’s easy. Because it’s doable. Because companies get away with it all the time.
It’s harder for one person to gain so much knowledge about careers in a short period of time, than it is for a company to hire a CEO, a HR senior, or someone to draw up policies or establish a culture that will help the company to grow and protect itself against employees that might hurt it.
It’s ultimately the employees’ responsibility to find out how much people are earning, how much the industry is paying, and make a decision about what to do with their lives. It’s not a company’s responsibility to live that life for you.
Please watch out for yourself
I feel that the people who will get hit the hardest are good young people who want to change the world, and are so sick of capitalism that they expend themselves to the point that they suffer a burnout. Please watch out, because it’s your responsibility to. A company isn’t a way to shelter yourself away from the problems of the world.
If you’re stuck, don’t worry. The world is bigger than you think. There are ways to salvage a broken life, and there are people who are willing to help. You can talk to your boss, even though you’re scared or if your boss doesn’t want to listen, there are other people you can talk to. If you’re down and you’re just starting to get up, realize that life will look different from this point on… and get going. It’ll work out okay in the end.
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This is an interesting topic. I only recently realized how flexible many companies are with salaries for candidates they want. It seems better to let those companies know how much you need to be compensated to feel good about the job than to take the job at a lower salary level than you'll be happy with.
Knowledge of your coworkers' salaries, if used wisely, could help you understand your own career progression, the company's payroll flexibility, etc. It would certainly be empowering to the wise employee.
This is really interesting - I was actually just reading the book 'Predictably Irrational' that discussed the topic of knowing salaries of colleagues. Dan Ariely wrote that he asked a top executive at a company what would happen if the info in the salary database became known throughout the company. The exec responded that it would be a catastrophe.
That said, I have found some benefit to talking with friends in my industry for a point of comparison.
open discussions about pay led to a lot of pissed off senior managers at my last employer. Since junior employees get paid hourly, some were making more than their senior supervisors. . . A lot of employees seem to jump ship once they hit that promotion from hourly to salaried, realizing they were taking a hit in terms of pay by staying.
I suppose things might happen drastically once the cat's come out of the bag. But I feel that it helps in the long run to have transparency, especially in the case where job scarcity is rare. I feel that if an employer is fully aware of what they signed on the dotted line to do, there would be less problems and people would just focus on the work. This includes understanding the various salary types (hourly vs. monthly, permanent vs. contractual) and their risks/benefits to the employee/employer. It's not quite a simple equation.
And, in the interest of my personal privacy, what if I said what I earn is between me, the IRS, my accountant and my employer? It's MY salary, not yours.
I know talking about your salary is often considered very taboo - you don't have to discuss it, but I have definitely seen people use this knowledge of comparison to their advantage. In the end, the choice is yours.
jrandom42 - you have a point. I wasn't advocating forced disclosure of salary - by all means, everyone is entitled to their choices. But I feel it is good information to know in order to make better choices about life, rather than taking things for granted.
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