I Know the Salaries of Thousands of Tech Employees | Hacker News Reader

I Know the Salaries of Thousands of Tech Employees

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27 pointsraldi3 comments

I post this now and then when this topic comes up. I work for a public university, and all salaries are public record. There's even a web app where you can look things up.

The negative impact of this has been nearly zero, as far as I can tell. Just hasn't done any harm at all. Now, state run universities are different from private companies - compensation tends to be flatter, more predictable, and has a heavier emphasis on seniority. Those traits might put a university at a big disadvantage if it were a private company.

Though now that I think of it, top law firms tend to post salaries for first year, second year, nth year associates. Again, it's all pretty predictable. Is tech much less predictable than law firm associates?

I do think far too much in tech is done in secret. It's not just salaries - I've interviewed at google, and supposedly there are scores in a database about me somewhere, along with notes, but I'm not allowed to see them. In a field plagued by accusations of bias, double secret interview tests seem like a bad idea, as do double secret salary negotiations. Or maybe they're doing exactly what they're meant to. Did Google discriminate against "over 40" applicants, as claimed by a large class action lawsuit? How would I know, the process is far too opaque for me to have any idea at all.

I have an idea - any company that uses the H1B visa must make all compensation information public (not just the H1B applications, but name, title, and compensation for all employees, the way state institutions are required to). I think this is reasonable to ask of companies making decisions bout who is and isn't allowed to work and live in the US, especially if they're claiming that they can't recruit and retain adequate talent from the existing workforce in spite of high salaries and excellent benefits.

> Is tech much less predictable than law firm associates?

Yes, significantly so. In tech compensation numbers are all over the board. Someone making $50k might be working alongside someone with the same title making $150k.

Both government and law are very bad examples. Government because compensation tiers are quite strict; law because the labor market heavily favors employers, compounded by a culture that expects you to work for peanuts early in your career and tirelessly climb the ladder to partner.

I wouldn't say first year associates at big firms work for peanuts. In New York, at elite firms, starting salaries for 1st year associates is closing in on 200k. It's competitive, of course, they do work long hours under stressful conditions for that pay, and NY is an expensive city.

But the question remains - how are tech workers well served by the secrecy around salary? Why should we protect a company from the consequences of informing its workers that one developer makes half of what another makes? Especially if this company is lobbying government to do something about the critical shortage of software developers (and that something, surprise surprise, involves handing massive amount of government sponsored power - the right to decide who is allowed to live and work in the us - over to that company's HR department).

First things first, let's get transparency.

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