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Comment by 88913527 | Hacker News Reader

Given how people already will say anything for a raise, I don't see how posting salary ranges in JDs changes those claims. As the employer, you still set the raise. If people want to double their compensation, they aren't vying for a raise: they're looking for a new job. So companies give 3-10% a year, and if the employee doesn't like it, it's up to them to walk. Most people don't want to walk, because leetcoding and job hunting is work. So, the employer can give modest raises without rocking the boat. Employees vote with their feet. Anyone with one eye open can look at levels.fyi and know that 2021 market rates != 2019 market rates. Been a role for 2+ years and want a meaningful comp change? You have to leave, that's how it is.

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You would be right if it wasn't a well-known fact that people hired in 2021 on the same position you were hired on in 2019 may well have a 30-50% higher salary than you today, since companies almost always have an idiotic hard cap on yearly raises, but no similar cap on new hire offers.

So, out of accounting spite, many companies are opting for churn instead of stability by simple raise vs new hire policy, making it worse for everyone.

> Been a role for 2+ years and want a meaningful comp change? You have to leave, that's how it is.

That's even more likely to be the case when there are strict guidelines around compensation (eg: when salaries are public). When your manager has some wiggle room, you might be able to justify a bigger bump than average because of all the extra hard work you're putting in, even if your experience level doesn't qualify you for a straight up promotion.

Might is doing a lot of work there. They also might not even when they have more notional wiggle room. Or you’ll be given a significant bump that still leaves you underpaid versus your peers. The information asymmetry is there for the employer to exploit after all.

What you’re really saying is that making the information available makes it harder for companies to retain employees using the status quo tactics. Which increases turn-over, which in reality is the businesses problem not the employees. So from the employee perspective what is the problem in being better informed about the price dynamics within the market?

If you’re asking about listing a 90% confidence interval guess as to what you expect to pay for a new position: no problem at all (other than if a small market leads alone which might push employers to decide “the benefit/risk of listing this job in Colorado is not worth the research, compliance costs, and uncertainty, so we’ll advertise this job to the other 98.5% of the US”)

If you’re asking about listing individual salaries, I think some employees would object and, unless they signed onto the job with that expectation, as an employer I don’t believe I’m morally right to publish their currently private information without their consent, nor tell them “you can quit if you don’t like it”. (I have absolutely no problem with anyone voluntarily disclosing their own information, discussing it, comparing it, whatever.)

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