Comments on: Why We Don’t Share Salaries

By: anon

anon — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 06:11:56 +0000

@Tim
“i make $88600 after taxes and my wife makes $48k after taxes and we save roughly 98%”
You live on $2700 a year? What???

By: FFB

FFB — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:39:12 +0000

I’m willing to talk about my and my wife’s salary in general terms. I’m not going to list exact numbers for each of us, and I’ll round the numbers a bit and not tell you whether I’ve rounded them up or down. Like Tim said, me saying “I’m saving XXX dollars a month” when I make four times as much as someone else doesn’t lend me much credibility. But when I say we make around $110k between the two of us, and our relatively fixed expenses are around $4k/month (mmm … Southern California living!), then you can compare my situation to yours.

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Free Money Finance — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 10:19:49 +0000

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By: shelly

shelly — Thu, 31 May 2007 07:38:35 +0000

Salary is not always irrelevant. take for example transitions between companies or even yearly reviews – wouldn’t you like knowing better your landscape (BTW I recently used the SalaryBase project at http://www.salarybase.com)

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 31 May 2007 07:04:39 +0000

oh, i make $88600 after taxes and my wife makes $48k after taxes and we save roughly 98% (except when we are saving for a trip or purchase, then it will dip some). there are plenty of people who make more and those who make less, especially considering we are in our early thirties.

bottom line, it’s like keeping up with the joneses in comparing salaries. the only time is should matter what others are making is when you think you should be making the same or more. if you think that, then you need to do something about it rather than feel jealous etc over salary.

Michelle, I disagree about companies will suffer. i think companies should set up some sort of standardized pay scales for jobs like the government does. i haven’t seen a company yet where people didn’t know what others were making. some people are content, others just don’t know how to ask for what they are worth.

again, lazy man, i think it comes down to credibility. if you have above average salary, you have the ability to pay off debt or save more than someone with a lower salary (i’m speaking generally).

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:46:05 +0000

i don’t think it really matters if you keep it private or not. if you are a pf blogger, i think it’s useful for people to know the pf blogger’s salary in terms of ability to save. a pf blogger with $100k/yr doling out advice or displaying tracking of savings, just isn’t the same as someone earning $30k/yr trying to do the same thing, all things being equal. i for one see it as a point of credibility.

By: zen

zen — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:19:34 +0000

It’s all relative poverty – you will always feel “poorer” making 10k less than the next guy, regardless if you pull in six figures or not.

“Richness” and “poorness” is all relative to perspective.

By: dong

dong — Thu, 31 May 2007 03:31:27 +0000

I think in general it’s good to share salaries but after a certain point it can become touchy. I mean i know how much my doctor friends maket since it’s well known how well they do for themselves, but my what I do is more shrouded in mystery (and is much more variable) I feel less comfortable sharing my entire pay…

By: Tricia

Tricia — Thu, 31 May 2007 03:12:25 +0000

I wasn’t going to put salary information up at all, but after I started posting expense reports, it seemed like I had to show the income side for it all to make some sense.

I won’t break it down, though, to show my salary from my job. I guess I’m too concerned about a co-worker or my boss getting upset if that information was made public.

By: Jess

Jess — Wed, 30 May 2007 23:05:08 +0000

I know in most Asian cultures we do share salaries (I wonder if Europeans do as well).

I admit it does cause some envy/jealousy but sometimes it’s also a way for people to bond and share problems.

By: Lazy Man and Money

Lazy Man and Money — Wed, 30 May 2007 22:05:49 +0000

I’m still confused as to why personal finance bloggers don’t share salary. I’m not sure that many of my readers could compare themselves to me (software engineer in Silicon Valley). Those that could probably A) make more than me B) can figure out for themselves roughly what a 31 year old software engineer would make in Silicon Valley. It’s pretty much at Salary.com or PayScale.com.

I think I keep mine secret because if you thinking about the above information, my salary is going to be above average, perhaps far above average. Readers could focus on that and discount my message on the basis that it “won’t apply to their income level” – even if it does.

So my question is, since most people can’t really compare themselves to you, why wouldn’t you share salary?

By: Michelle

Michelle — Wed, 30 May 2007 21:01:57 +0000

Another reason we don’t share salaries? Cuz our companies will suffer if we do. At one job, I tracked employee productivity. This included a factor for salary – higher salaries had better be producing more than lower salaries.

I watched (without saying a word, and I now I regret it) as a man got hired at $110k to do the same job a woman had been doing for years at $90k. After a year, she was still about twice as productive as he was, and he was still making $20k more than she was.

If she had known she was getting screwed, she would have demanded higher pay. Because we’ve been programmed to keep this info quiet, they get to discriminate at will.

By: mapgirl

mapgirl — Wed, 30 May 2007 18:30:51 +0000

Point to Nick! Oh and I know where you work and I could guess your salary if I asked around. heh heh. I keep mine more or less posted up at NetWorthIQ. It’s still less than my old college roommates who went to Harvard and UCLA for law school so I don’t think it really matters. I’ve got my health, my happiness and my condo. My friends lose on at least one of those three if not two.

By: Punny Money

Punny Money — Wed, 30 May 2007 17:50:05 +0000

“Why don’t we share salaries?”

You first.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 30 May 2007 17:46:06 +0000

Salary itself is irrelevant to whether a person is financially secure or not, it doesn’t necessarily make someone ‘better off’. Your behavior and how you manage your finances is what matters. That was my point.