Narrator: Have you ever discussed your salary with people you work with?

Thom: Yes, I have. I used to work in a small company run by a husband and wife.
They were rarely around the office and we would often have informal chats as a
team, especially in the afternoons when we were all tired. There were only around
ten of us and we all sat fairly close together. One day, the topic of pay and secrecy
came up and we all wondered why it was that people never discuss their salary. So
we all individually shared what we made with the group. It turned out that there
was quite a lot of disparity, particularly with some of the older females making far
less than some of their younger male counterparts. What followed was quite a few
private meetings with the business owners, as well as an official email to everyone
in the company saying salaries should not be discussed under any circumstances.
We didn’t have as many group conversations after that, but I think it was actually
very important that we had that discussion.
Narrator: Why do you think businesses discourage people from talking about
their salary?
Bianca: I used to work for Human Resources and I think the reason is that pay
structures can be very convoluted and can differ from person to person for reasons
that aren’t necessarily obvious to co-workers. For example, if you stay with a
company for a period of time, you will get a pay rise every year. Now, all being
well, if you are good at a job and want to keep doing it, you should be able to do it
and keep getting pay rises. But this will mean there could be a variance between
what someone who has been doing the job for fifteen years makes and what their
brand new manager makes. The manager is just going to see that they are
structurally senior to the older worker and may well feel demotivated or envious as
a result if they know about their salary. Pay is also often based on qualifications, so
someone with a Master’s degree in a junior role may well get almost the same as
someone in a senior role with no degree. People have all sorts of different abilities
and needs and it’s very hard to standardise pay as a result.
Narrator: Do you think employers should be more open about their pay
structures?
Gerard: I do. I think the only reason it is hidden is because it benefits the people
at the top. I think this whole culture of secrecy around salaries is a scam. People
say things like, ‘oh it’s difficult because everyone has different abilities and
qualifications’ but companies have no difficulty putting a price on their products or
services, but they can’t put a value on the work that someone is doing? Come on!
You can give a job a salary range and if that person stays in the job, then they get
additional merits that are reflected in their pay packet, it’s not rocket science. I
simply do not apply for jobs that say things like ‘competitive salary offered’. All
that tells me is the company is going to try and use the fact that I want the job to
try and get me to do the job for less than they are willing to pay to save themselves
a few thousand. What does the job pay? It’s a simple enough question. You should
not have to start the interview process without knowing how much the job will pay.