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Comment by matsemann | Hacker News Reader

At least in Norway it's already public what everyone makes. I can look up the taxable salary information about anyone (so salary after deductions but it's probably ok close). Also, even without that, salary of public employees is part of the information you can request to view.

I feel discussing salaries is quite common here. At work someone made a spreadsheet everyone fills their salary into if they want, experience, tenure etc and you can see how you compare. It's a great way of leveling the information imbalance that's normally there.

Edit: not sure why I'm down voted. I'm just saying how it is here, don't take it out on me if you don't like the concept, heh!

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You can look up tax lists in Norway but it's not anonymous since 2008. The person you look up will know that you did. While it is legal naturally it can have social consequences.

Everyone? I may misunderstand but it looks to me like a serious invasion of privacy and with a high potential for abuse.

The lesser form of abuse would be for a shop to loop up how wealthy a customer is for targeted advertising. But it can also be used to see whose kid is worth kidnapping, and everything in between, like refusing tenants with low salaries.

Everyone. Just search their name and select the correct personality from the list (based on zip code and age). People can, since a few years ago, see who has viewed them, which deters it a bit. But easy to just have a friend or something look up your coworker or boss if so.

Also, media gets everything and make lists. "This is what the soccer players make", "top 50 influencers" etc.

I don't think it's abused much. For wealthy kidnappings and so it's easier ways than to brute force names of potentials. Instead just look for CXOs or owners of companies that are doing ok (also public data). Refusing tenants with low salary is already done through credit agencies all over the world, this doesn't change anything in that regard either.

As for privacy: I guess you could say so. But as I said, it's part of the culture so I don't feel most people mind, and it helps us to get paid fairly.

Assuming I was Norwegian and for some reason was getting paid way more than my coworkers, could I format my deductions so that it looked like I was paid on par with them, but be able to recover most of the money later?

I guess it's technically possible but there are not that many deductions that would have a significant impact on your salary information.

why would you try to do that?

So you pay less income tax?

Every tax avoid-er tries to find deductions from nothing.

To avoid the social consequences amongst your peers? Perhaps that's not an issue in Norway, but it's an issue in the US.

I don't want my coworkers to know how much I make because if I'm making substantially more or less than them, it will affect how they perceive and interact with me.

Norwegian here.

This isn't really an issue, as far as I can tell. I feel in general most people get paid fairly, so if you're doing the same work as someone else the pay won't be that different.

I've always shared and talked salary with my coworkers, both when I was earning the least and the most of my coworkers. When I earned the least, they helped me with how to approach my boss for a raise; and now when I'm the best paid, I help my coworkers get what they deserve.

What if you are a kind of an high achiever, and companies would be willing to pay more for your output than an average one?

Or assume you do 2x better work, they initially pay you the same, then you get a better offer elsewhere, and they would want to match, but if they do, you would be getting paid a lot more than your coworkers.

Why do you not want for everyone to be treated fairly? If I earn more without good reason, why should I be more loyal to some rich owner than to my colleague that I am interacting with on a daily basis. Do people in the US think like this?

(Note though: I don't think many people acyually check each others tax returns, as that kind of already implies enviousness.)

> Why do you not want for everyone to be treated fairly?

That's a strange assumption to make. Of course I want everyone to be treated fairly.

> why should I be more loyal to some rich owner

It's not a matter of loyalty to some rich owner (particularly if I'm making much less than my coworkers[1]). It's a matter of getting along in the workplace.

[1] I have, and probably will again, taken positions where I was overtly underpaid because I was getting something else out of the job that I valued more than the money. But (at least in the US), people tend to equate your pay level with your skill level and value, so I certainly wouldn't want my coworkers to know.

> (Note though: I don't think many people acyually check each others tax returns, as that kind of already implies enviousness.)

I wouldn't directly check it, if they see that I have done so, but if I could have someone else check or similar, I would definitely get it checked what everyone makes. Not specifically because of envy, but it would just be a no brainer thing to do in terms of understanding the market.

In Sweden, you could do löneväxling, effectively transferring some of your salary to an investment account to be taxed when you cash out after retirement. That might make it look like you earn less on your taxes.

Note though that while people in the nordics are highly individualistic, most would never even think about such an idea of screwing over their colleagues. There are good reasons for löneväxling, but this is not one of them

Does the salary info include investment income or income from other sources, or only salaries from corporations? If you work as a barista would your taxable information be available as well?

No it's just gross tax paid from which you can kinda-sorta guess the income but not always. Also the information is outdated by two or three years.

No, it's not two or three years old. It's published in December the following year.

You file your taxes however in April for the previous year.

You can see the following three numbers:

Wealth, Income, Calculated tax

Here's what it says for me (I've censored some stuff with ):

Born: 19** Wealth: 5** *** Postal code/area: **** Income: 4** *** Tax Municipality: *** Calculated tax: 1** ***

Cool - thank you for the information. I was just curious.

I find it interesting that you censored publicly available information.

In Sweden too

Yes, and I think where this kind of thing is useful is in job advertisements.

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