When people ask me what I earn, I always say ‘enough’. Other than that, I’ll keep my mouth shut, I’ll keep an eye out. Talking about your salary is always a mess.
I’ve known that since my first real pay slip, in the software in 1994. I shared that. Because I was proud of it, with my 2,500 guilders gross! But instead of happy conversations, all I got was nagging about it.
Because half of my friends laughed at me – “you get double at the bank” – and then I felt like a loser. At the other half I was suddenly Scrooge McDuck, I got jealous faces and the urgent advice to give more rounds in the pub – super annoying.
I never understand salary. I rarely see a consistent relationship between performance and reward around me, do you? Or wait, people with a big mouth get more than people who quietly do their work, but exactly how it works: I have no idea.
I also often get angry about salaries. When I hear that people with a lease car get more than people who wash patients in healthcare, for example – then I can’t enjoy myself for a week. Salary is a taboo and that’s a good thing. And yes, I also know that that is a stupid opinion.
Because if everyone hides their salary, there will be big differences between colleagues, readers wrote on Twitter when I asked about it. The only person who benefits from the secrecy of salaries is the employer, was a popular opinion.
Salary is often no secret at all, others wrote. Teachers, if you work in defense or in education – the collective labor agreements show exactly what everyone earns. But I wasn’t that impressed with either argument.
Because who says everyone is honest when there is ‘openness’ within a company about salaries? The same applies to collective labor agreements. Who can be sure that employees have not negotiated their own terms: something earlier in a higher scale, an extra irregularity allowance, a personal bonus? There are employers who forbid their staff from talking about a raise so as not to give colleagues an idea – so who’s to say?
Of course there are people who have received a higher salary because of openness, but those are really exceptions. Oh yes, I almost forgot to say that: I also get cynical about salary. And that’s also why I don’t think we should talk about it.
And I’m not the only one, don’t you think I’m crazy. “I only feel sad when I find out that entire tribes are paid better than me,” one person wrote on Twitter.
“I once accidentally saw the salaries of colleagues somewhere and since then I know how terribly unfair it is distributed, especially between men and women,” a second. “I would only like to know now if it is more fair. To avoid further disappointment.”
“Why would you want to know too?” wrote a third. “Better rely on your own strength. And are you not satisfied? Then do something about it, get better, ask for more, change jobs, but don’t look at anyone else!” Or, and I’ll add that myself, otherwise we’ll get that again: be happy that you get a salary!
Total openness isn’t everything either. A reader wrote that in Norway, where all salaries are public, access to this register had to be restricted so that not everyone could browse through it anonymously. She sent me a 2017 BBC article that showed that before access was restricted, children were bullied at school over their parents’ pay and that celebrity salaries were readily shared.
Furthermore, if CEOs know what their competitor earns, they want that too, or of course even more, and the (wrong) salaries rise even further. Even more reason to keep everything a secret.
It would be best if every organization had a referee who intervenes if the differences get out of hand. Or a very honest personnel officer. But yes, of course he can also cheat.
What comes closest to ‘honest’, a friend tweeted, is LinkedIn’s salary overview (Premium) in which you can enter what you earn. If everyone does this, a reliable guideline is created that you can use in salary negotiations.
And of course you can agree with colleagues you trust to compare the salaries. One reader wrote that she had “re-educated female colleagues everywhere.” They were usually satisfied with a salary proposal, „while I knew that male colleagues never did. And thus earned more.”
Together you are stronger, wrote other readers. You don’t necessarily have to be a woman for that. But keep it so and petit committee and in a back room.
Salary is like chicory. You can do everything with it, it is a bit bitter and it grows best in the dark.
How was your week? Tips for Japke-d. Bouma through @Japked on Twitter.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of November 3, 2021
#Salary #taboo #good