Being asked your salary

I don't mind really, and don't understand why people are so mysterious about it. When I ask it, I get my parents all over me blah blah not your business blah rude questions blah don't ask people that blah blah you shouldn't ask such questions blah blah bla...


All my mates ( true they're teens but what the hell) all don't mind telling me how much they're paid from where and how much an hour etc... It's always those odd adults that are mysterious about it :p.
 
As I said in the other thread, I used to work for a firm where, apart form the board for legal reasons, you could see any one else's salary in the company, together with anything else in their personnel file.

The reasoning was that if you knew someone earned more than you, you could see their review forms and see what it was they did to earn the payrises to get to where they were. It bred success as people wanted to emulate those that did the best. Additionally managers could not give pay rises to some and not others without good justification because everyone would know.

They implemented that policy in 1964 and kept it until they were bought out by Logica. I doubt you could switch to such a policy mid way through the life of a company without staff uproar!!

As a result of that (my first job after graduating was with them) I've always been pretty underwhelmed by talking about salaries and don't mind sharing if people really want to know.
 
BigT said:
The reasoning was that if you knew someone earned more than you, you could see their review forms and see what it was they did to earn the payrises to get to where they were. It bred success as people wanted to emulate those that did the best. Additionally managers could not give pay rises to some and not others without good justification because everyone would know.
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That's bloody brilliant, why can't all companies do this.
 
Because you have to have the foresight when the company only consists of 2 or 3 people to put such a policy in place. Then you have to resist the overwhelming calls to abandon it when you start to grow a little and hire senior people who object to it. When you get to a bout 100 employees it then reaches critical mass and will always be the case.
 
If I was asked in the course of a relevant conversation with people I wouldn't mind knowing, I' be happy to give an £k figure. I wouldn't usually volunteer the info and if people ask just for the sake of knowing then it isn't any of their business.
 
IT Admin -37 hours a week @ £11 p/h.

I say talk about your pay openly. Its motivation for me to improve my own when I see what other people are on.
 
I've worked hard to get where I am now so I am pleased with my salary. No problem discussing it whatsoever!
 
The only people i wont tell are people beneath me in work, I would find it to awkward. Other that that i don't care who knows :)
 
doesn't bother me, myself i'm on low wage but i could be happy and more well off than someone on a high salary who is stressed and never gets any time off with the family. Doesn't bother me what i earn or what people think, i also never do any overtime.
 
I don't have a problem telling people what I earn if they really want to know.
It's not something that comes up in general conversation, but most of my friends know what I earn and I know what most of them earn, at least roughly anyway.
 
I'm generally fairly vague about it but that is more because that is the 'done thing' in society. If it was commonplace for people to discuss their salaries then I'm sure I would to.

Aside from fiancee the only people I've ever told my exact salary was my former boss when I changed jobs, HR types, and when I've applied for a new job.

As an aside, sadly I think being on a low salary (and being honest about it) can be something of a rut, because it means future employers know they don't need to offer you full whack to secure your services. In fact sometimes if your salary is *really* low (say 30%+ below market rate for your current job), I think it can even put them off and get them thinking about how complex your job actually is, or whether you are any good at it. There's an Application Developer where I work who I think is on about £12-13k (educated guess), and I reckon some agents/companies will look at that and not take him seriously.
 
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