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Comment by dsugarman | Hacker News Reader

I have a feeling you will regret this soon. There are certain benefits in having a firm salary structure sponsored by a transparent system, but the loss of flexibility will hurt in ways you haven't experienced. Also, letting everyone know what their peers make can cause disgruntled employees.

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My company, GrantTree, is also run with open salaries (internally, though I posted the salary scale in an HN comment before). There was some disgruntlement when everyone was underpaid, but there's been remarkably little disgruntlement from individuals asking for more money for just themselves. This had been so for over a year now, so not conclusive, but starting to accumulate some data.

So, for example, in case of competitor offering your valuable worker +10-15% to their salary, will you have any means to match that offer?

No, and if all they care about is the salary, they should probably go and take the larger offer.

what if the salary is the only differentiator, and you really value them? What is your recourse to deal with compelling offers? (honest question, not trolling)

I've worked under open salary formulas and closed salary formulas. I'd rather work under an open salary formula any day.

Why

1) No stress from "am I getting paid more/less than my co-workers"

2) No stress from "how much will I make in 5 years if I stay here"

On net, it let me focus more on doing my job well and less on politics.

You mean it can cause employees asking for comparable pay

I work at a firm with a similar salary structure. Like every other thing, it's a tradeoff. Sure, I concede there are ways it hurts, but they are offset in my case by the ways it helps.

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