Then why is it that we take these principles - accountability, transparency, trust - and toss them out of the window when dealing with the private sector? The easy answer here is embarrassment: it impacts social dynamics when we put a number on ourselves. The weird thing is, we already do that when it comes to titles (e.g. POTUS > doctors > engineers > etc. etc. >...McDonald's employee). So if we already have a somewhat-established hierarchy when it comes to jobs even before considering compensation, why would people be embarrassed if that hierarchy is a tad more crystalized by concrete numbers?
If you know me really well, you know I can have an overbearing sense of pride - I am what I am, I'm proud of it, and the amount of money I make has a minuscule impact on my sense of self-worth (if I were a better person, this impact would be nonexistent). & to be clear that I'm not dodging the issue: my salary was 55,350 last year, and I'm getting a less than $800 bump to 56,136 this year. I know most of you are private sector, and I also know that most have me beat by, at minimum, 30k/year. So why's salary transparency important for you?
Here are just a couple issues that are enabled when salaries are kept hidden:
- The glass ceiling (pay gaps for women)
- The bamboo ceiling (pay gaps/lack of opportunities for Asian Americans)
Besides those systemic issues, hiding salary also means that that idiot that doesn't contribute to the team... can be well compensated compared to the rest of the squad, simply for having the guts to negotiate and the sweet talk to highlight (or outright fake) their contributions. Very meritorious, right...? (if you didn't catch the sarcasm, no, that's not right - it's wrong)
Furthermore, & I hate to say this because I know y'all already make buckets more than me, but this also allows employers to suppress salaries across the board. If we look past the inequities that hold down women and minorities, there's also this issue: companies succeed when they pay their workforce the absolute minimum amount that they can. That's just a byproduct of capitalism. By keeping salaries hidden, it's possible for a company to, for example, pay their top whatever (engineer/manager/intern/coffee grunt) at a rate that isn't actually "fair."
So, what's the dealio? Why perpetuate a system that allows you and all your coworkers to get bent over and taken for a ride by "the man"? Go forth and at least post an entry on Glassdoor. More seriously, talk to your coworkers*! That way, you can figure in your head where you stand - if you know you're worth more than someone who makes more than you, go demand it. If someone is putting in work but doesn't have the $$ to show for it, go encourage them to make their needs known.
*How does this conversation go? Well if you're me, something like this:
Me:"Hey man, how much do you make?"
Them: "This much"
Me: "Nice!" (note: this is only if it's actually nice) or "Dang, man! How come you don't get paid more?!"
Curious about pay for someone who works for the City of San Jose? Or do you want to see how much the top 50 (or 100, or 200, or whatever) employees get paid? Check this out - it's a table that shows pay: https://data.sanjoseca.gov/dataviews/245417/EMPLO-COMPE-PLAN-2017/
If you are looking for someone specific, you can go to the bottom of the table and click the magnifying glass then type in someone's last name (for instance, Liccardo for the mayor, or Garcia for SJPD Chief, so on & so forth). Otherwise, the table just shows all employees in order of highest to lowest pay (you can change the table's settings in a lot of other ways as well).
Nice posting. I really enjoyed reading your comments. And would like to add my two cents. I would also note that this topic is very complex and me writing a couple paragraphs is only scratching the surface. I don't think there is a firm right or wrong answer.
ReplyDeleteI think that being a teacher is a very honorable and respectable profession. You guys should get paid more but the current system does not allow it.
Firstly, all employer should and does know the salaries of their employees. In the case of teachers, the employer is the school district. And the school district is funded by taxpayer dollars. In essence, the taxpayers is the teacher's employer. Which is why the public should have the right to know how money is being spent on salaries.
Second, from my experience working in private sector for 12+ years in companies large and small, salaries are not typically transparent in the private sector. But it is not something that is kept totally secret. There are structures within a company when it comes to pay. For example, company XYZ might have a pay bracket for engineer (80K to 100K). Factors such as years of experience, previous job salary, hot/cold job market, number of applicants and so on, determines how the scale moves within the bracket. Does it make a difference to know the exact salary of someone you work with? Do you need to know if its 95K of 93K? To me it is really insignificant. We live in a employment-at-will world. If you don't like your compensation, go work for another company. Salary is something that both parties has agreed on. Also, too much transparency can cause a lot of in-fighting within a team or a group. This can kill productivity and innovation. Another reason salaries are not transparent is because it keeps employees motivated to work even harder to get to the top of the pay grade or even better, jump into a higher grade.
As far your comments on workers (private or public sector) getting paid and not carrying the load, quite frankly that's every single workplace. There are great teachers who put in many extra hours grading papers and doing prep for class. But there are also teachers that really don't teach and do the bare minimum. Private or public, anywhere you work there will be people who don't earn their money and some who you think deserve more for the work they put in.
In my perfect world, where I am all-powerful ruler, I would privatize education. But that topic is for another day.
Hey, I'm glad you enjoyed reading this.
DeleteTo your first point, I'm not complaining about my own salary being transparent - I think it's totally within reason and fair.
To your 2nd point, I know salaries are not typically transparent - but if you think that the difference between 93k and 95k is insignificant (and I would agree with you on that), then how could being transparent about it be harmful? I also disagree with the idea of in-fighting - if that were the case, don't you think more of our public services (where salaries are transparent) would be in disarray? But I don't remember the last time a police force, social work team, or school staff disintegrated or even suffered due to salary differences. That's because all of those ecosystems already had systems of transparency in place.
If you apply this to the private sector, you might have to dump a few employees along the way that are unhappy, but once it is the cultural expectation, then what infighting is there to be had?