[ale] OT: it is only me or ... ?

[Steve Litt]

On Fri, 15 Jan 2016 16:37:56 +0000
"Lightner, Jeff" <JLightner at dsservices.com> wrote:

> Since I've done most of my career without a
> Bachelor's degree I'd lose in purely objective measurements (unless
> they started taking IQs as an objective measurement but that would
> meet with tons of resistance from those who hate "The Bell Curve").

The preceding is a definite problem. There's almost no way to quantify
usefulness to the company, and paying the non-degreed less is nothing
but class warfare.

I still think pay transparency might be a good idea. Just don't explain
it, in objective ways or other ways, and I think things will tend to
iron out to a degree. Just like on a pro-athletics team.

For instance, Ron Recession gets hired for pennies on the dollar in a
year with 9% unemployment. 3 years later, unemployment is 4.9%, and
Bobby Boomtimes gets hired at 20% more than Ron is making at the time,
for no reason other than supply and demand. Five years after that,
Bobby is still making 20% more than Ron. That's no good, and we've all
seen it happen.

With transparent pay, at least Ron would have an idea that the market
can pay him more, and he'd get another job. With transparent pay,
companies would give appropriate pay increases to good performers who
got hired cheap, lessening turnover. With transparent pay, the
employees would have a better bargaining position, because knowledge
always increases your bargaining position.

But here's the real reason: You can't keep salaries secret. Somebody
sees the payroll file. Somebody knows someone in the accounting
department who lets the cat out of the bag. Somebody tells somebody
else their salary. It's never really secret, just hard to find. And
when somebody finds out roundabout that they're getting paid
significantly less than someone with half their productivity, they're
going to get very bitter, and that's not good.

True story. When I was 28 I quit a very exploitative corporate job where
my boss was this 65 year old Depression-Era fossil who believed
employees should be loyal and grateful. A few months after quitting, on
the bus, I ran into the assistant accountant for the old company, and we
discussed my old boss. She told me his salary: it was 18% more than
mine had been. He was the regional sales manager: 2 levels above me.
He'd put in 45 years for the company. And all he had to show for it was
18% more than I was getting. If I'd known the company was that
ungrateful to their hard-working employees, I'd have quit years earlier.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
January 2016 featured book: Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting
http://www.troubleshooters.com/28