Pay transparency is widely discussed in today's job market. It was considered taboo, but now, many employers embrace it to ensure fair pay, foster employee trust, and attract skilled candidates.
What is Pay Transparency?
Pay or salary transparency involves openly sharing information about compensation with employees and job candidates.
Under federal law, pay transparency refers to how openly employers share salary and pay information. It can also involve how easily employees can discover the compensation of their colleagues in the workplace. It includes explaining how salaries are decided, revealing salary ranges, and occasionally disclosing individual employee salaries. Transparency levels can differ among organizations but only aim to promote openness and trust in pay practices.
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The Evolution of Pay Transparency
Companies discouraged discussing pay in the past, even having to pay secrecy policies. Due to online resources and wage tools, employees can access more pay information, leading to more discussions. In response to the demand for transparency, some places have made laws to promote it and address pay inequality.
Leveraging Pay Transparency To Negotiate a Raise
Daniella Atkinson, a reporter and presenter at The Market Herald in Vancouver, Canada, has gained a sizable social media following by conducting street interviews about people's occupations. With 94,300 TikTok followers and 116,000 Instagram followers, she realized people are as curious as she is. Viewers have shared that she inspired them to negotiate higher wages. Promoting salary transparency, Atkinson also discovered gender pay disparities where female journalists in her newsroom were paid less than her male colleagues when she left the company. Understanding typical pay can be essential to salary negotiation when job hunting or securing a raise, as shared with CNBC Make It.
Responses May Be Biased; Not a Representative Sample
TikTok salary videos offer valuable insights, especially for high school or college students, showcasing a realistic view of pay and job experiences, according to Elizabeth Lyons, a management professor at the University of California, San Diego, focusing on pay transparency and the gender wage gap. She values how interviewees discuss not only salaries but also non-financial job benefits like flexible hours and the chance to make a positive impact. However, Lyons advises caution when interpreting salary videos as important details, like the employer's name, are often omitted for privacy. Salaries can vary significantly between employers in the same industry, which can be counterchecked with sites like Glassdoor and Payscale. Lyons points out that responses may be biased, as dissatisfied individuals may decline interviews or avoid sharing negative aspects if they fear their boss might see the video.
Lyons emphasizes that viewers should remember this isn't a representative sample of people in the duplicate job titles but rather are individuals willing to participate. For those uncomfortable with on-camera interviews, Williams offers a salary database for anonymous input on salary, position, and location, reassuring that transparency can be achieved while safeguarding oneself and doesn't need to be on "Salary Transparent Street" to contribute to pay transparency.
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