We want to hear your vote. Do you think salaries should be transparent? Vote using #TeamShh or #TeamTell on social media.
Picture this. A co-worker is complaining about salary and blurts out “I only make…” and says a number higher than your salary.
What?!? But you are more experienced! You have been with the company longer! You trained this person, for goodness sake!
That little scenario and variations of it are the start of many angry or tearful outbursts at companies all over the world.
Some people think that such high emotional reactions are among the reasons why salaries should be kept secret. Others think that there wouldn’t be anything to get upset about in the first place if there was transparent salaries from the start.
It is a polarizing issue for sure, so let’s take a look at both sides:
Team Shh: My Salary is None of Your Business
Some people like to keep their personal matters private. And like it or not, money is a very personal matter.
Much like politics or religion, talking about money at work has a lot of potential to make people feel alienated or uncomfortable.
For people with large salaries, transparency might make them the target of resentment. For people with small salaries, they might not get taken as seriously.
Team Shh is made up of people who value their privacy and others who just don’t think salary transparency is worth the potential turbulence on the team.
Team Tell: Honesty is the Best Policy for Salaries
As workplace cultures shift to meet the needs of the modern workplace, some formerly taboo topics just aren’t as forbidden. Millennials tend to be more outspoken, even when it comes to salary. And since millennials now make up most of the workforce, salary secrecy is becoming less important.
Team Tell is made up in part of employees that don’t see the big deal in talking about what they make to their coworkers. But there are others who take it to the next level and work salary transparency into their company culture.
Buffer, a social media scheduling and engagement company, is a prime example of Team Tell. “Default to transparency” is the one of their core elements of culture, sharing everything from emails and revenues to employee performance and self-improvement.
They also have fully transparent salaries, all of which work from a specific formula so that everyone knows what everyone else earns and why. The formula starts with a base salary based on job type, then multplies based on seniority, experience and location.
Buffer shares the feeling that Team Tell is based upon, which is that transparency is a good thing because it promotes trust.
While Team Shh may think that talking about salaries could cause trouble, Team Tell feels that the trouble is not in the salary, but in the secret. After all, if everyone knew the salary structure from the start, there would be nothing to argue about in the first place.
The idea behind salary transparency is that the cards being on the table from the start helps keep everything fair. Some even argue that things like the wage gap and pay discrimination are less likely in a transparent culture.
What do you think? Are you #TeamShh or #TeamTell? Share this article along with your thoughts using social media and let the world know what team you’re on.
Erin Palmer is a writer and editor who is intrigued by the idea of salary transparency . Her work has appeared in numerous publications and websites, including The Chicago Tribune and The Huffington Post.
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