My most controversial post ever, is still the one where I support having open salaries in a company.
I was surprised by how very provocative this idea is to a lot of people, but I remain convinced that it’s the best way to ensure motivation, happiness and fairness.
And Today’s Dilbert strip supports me :o)
Yes, I second this. However, before we do that we need to create an environment for doing it. We need to check, is our environment conducive enough to face this truth about salaries. Do we have internal parity, are all salary decisions justified and in-line with our career progression commitment, etc.
In the Indian context, our workforce is still not very mature enough and our system itself is not so transparent and justified as we still have 30-40% soft-part attached to all such salary related decisions.
That’s a great point Seema and there’s no doubt that in some workplaces, making salaries public would lead to a lot of… unrest :o)
However, if you wait until you’re sure a workplace can handle the resulting conflicts and questions BEFORE publishing salaries, most companies will never get there.
I work in a setting of unions and Board of Education setting and approving salaries, so I know pretty much how much everyone makes. The hard part with fall-out is when the salaries are published in the local newspaper and they are higher than the median salary of this area.
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