Salary Transparency Scale Limits

The discussion centers around salary transparency, with contrasting views on its effectiveness based on company size and perspective (employer vs. employee).

Key Points:

• Current State of Salary Information:

  • Companies have full salary visibility while employees don't
  • This creates disadvantages for employees
  • Lack of transparency makes it difficult to identify underpayment or systemic bias
  • Discussing salaries remains largely taboo in workplace culture

• Emerging Transparency Trends:

  • Colorado law requiring pay rate disclosure in job posts (2021)
  • Companies like Buffer publishing all employee salaries publicly
  • Internal salary spreadsheets circulating in big tech companies
    • Google's spreadsheet reached 20,000+ entries within days
    • Microsoft and Facebook have similar initiatives

• Buffer's Transparency Experiment:

  • Used transparency as a marketing strategy
  • Published everyone's salaries publicly
    • CEO salary: $280,000
    • EA salary: $89,000
  • Helped them stand out despite having a non-unique product

• Challenges with Full Transparency:

  • Works well for startups but becomes problematic at scale
  • Buffer's co-founder admitted it might not work beyond 75-80 people
  • Can create tension when there are large salary disparities
  • Example: $3M owner salary vs. $50k receptionist creates uncomfortable dynamics

• Balanced Approach:

  • Anonymous data sharing more practical than named salaries
  • Employee perspective: Transparency provides negotiating power
  • Employer perspective: Full transparency can be detrimental
  • Small companies can handle more transparency than large ones