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Comment by krona | Hacker News Reader

Is there a reason not to have open salary information?

If any future employer or recruiter could see how much I'm currently paid (as in Norway) then that would place significant downward pressure on my salary over the long term.

Thinking longer term again, I think public record salaries combined with dynamic pricing, facial recognition and a cashless society is a combination of things most people should be worried about.

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Can you elaborate on why do you think that it "would place significant downward pressure on my salary" ?

I agree that in a particular single negotiation if it just so happens that they have this information then it could be a significant impact one way or the other (depending on what that history is) - especially since there's an information asymmetry since they know what you're making but you don't know what their other employees or the other applicants are making.

However, if it's a policy so that this information is available for both sides in every negotiation for everyone then it doesn't seem that this should fundamentally change the average pay in any industry. The core supply/demand factors are the same, and for every instance that might lower the wage there's are many cases that would have an upward pressure, i.e., the underpaid people can now objectively see which other companies pay better, and such employers can't simply rely that long-term loyal employees will be ignorant about the market rates as they do now.

"it seems" "should"

The world doesn't work like that.

> The underpaid people can now objectively see which other companies pay better

You mean, the ignorant people who don't care about pay, can now demand more? If you are being underpaid, it is because you don't care enough to 1) figure out what market rate is and/or 2) negotiate better. Salaries being public or not. No one deserves anything in life and you often get what you negotiate -- there are plenty of people who don't understand this.

Just because other companies (publicly) pay more, doesn't mean they will get the same pay as the other people are making.

How on Earth do I, personally, "figure out the market rate" for my job? The market gives me either no information or false information (at the very least unverifiable and untrustworthy information). I can ask my coworkers their salary I have no idea if they are being truthful if they answer (which they won't). I don't live in San Fransisco and I don't have any personal friends in the industry (and friends lie too). Software engineering jobs don't come up often here and when they do a salary range for the position isn't posted. If I am offered a new job my position in the salary negotiation is reduced since I still don't have any information about typical salaries, so we are at a catch 22. Additionally, I wouldn't want to actually negotiate salary for a job I'm not interested in because I'd like to not be known as the person who is constantly getting job offers then rejecting them, the market I small here.

And unfortunately the tabloid press would use this to attack people why they don't like or disagree with - Norway does not have a nasty tabloid press like some other countries.

It could also be used by criminals scoping out targets for burglary

Finland has the same system as Norway, and Finnish tabloids are full of the incomes & taxes of the rich and famous every year once the tax records come out. Last year, one of them published the tax records of all Finns earning over 120k EUR/year:

http://www.iltalehti.fi/verot-2016/tiedot/

http://www.iltalehti.fi/verot-2016/tiedot/top-kaikki.shtml (the top 2000)

But there doesn't seem to be any nefarious agenda to that, simply that it sells papers.

and you think the ends justify the means for news papers no matter what the human cost ?

What human cost?

Lives destroyed dead girls phones hacked forced suicides take your pic

What?

Not sure what that has to do specifically with publishing the incomes of rich people. Also, in general, Finnish yellow press is really damn tame compared to "real" tabloids like those in the UK.

read http://hackinginquiry.org/

Celebs and the so called metropolitan elites or judges who might take issue with Rupert Murdoch, Paul Dace and the Barclay Brothers and thus put themselves in the presses firing lines

So only ~2000 people in Finland make more money than run of the mill senior/staff software engineer at Google.

No, that's the top 2000 of the people making over 120k. #2000 came in at around 510k EUR (~600k USD).

If I were scoping targets for burglary, I'd perhaps look for signs of assets worth stealing instead, but maybe just a sign of my inexperience

Or, call me crazy, go look at people's houses.

which leaves an evidential trail

I have a high salary but you'd have a hard time finding much worth stealing in my house - my money's all in the bank.

Not necessarily. Being able to see what everybody else at the future company earns could put upward pressure on your salary in the long term.

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