Do you know what your colleagues earn?

[redtwin]

Apart from Directors and above, everyone's salary is known. Not so much because it is published, but because new job postings list salary and private health insurance/company car if eligible.

Of course what each person earns over and above that from overtime or bonuses is not known, nor am I curious.

I don't care for the Italian 3rd degree mentioned either and I am not English. A stranger doesn't need to know my marital status or if I have children and they certainly don't need to know how much I earn.

[Studio117]

whoami said:

IanA2 said:

I find it quite difficult to understand the English obsession with secrecy regarding pay. In Italy when you meet someone the first three questions you are usually asked are, are you married, do you have children, and how much do you earn?

Maybe I'm missing something.

Conversely, I can never understand the obsession with what someone else is paid.

Why would anyone care?

Never been asked about it by an Italian either.

Many brits have a real petty jealous streak which is just pathetic.

[HumbleJim]

IanA2 said:

I find it quite difficult to understand the English obsession with secrecy regarding pay. In Italy when you meet someone the first three questions you are usually asked are, are you married, do you have children, and how much do you earn?

Maybe I'm missing something.

When asked I always lie...................... I deny any children.

[s p a c e m a n]

We've all got a fairly good idea here but none of us care as even if someone is getting twice what you earn, two times sod all is still sod all.

[Dog Star]

Not a clue what they earn, and to be honest I genuinely don't care.

Current employer bought me out of my IT contract with a "how much do you want?" and just gave me what I asked for (oh how I wish I'd asked for more!). However I'm totally happy with what I get - it's a great place to work (best place I've ever been and in 20 years contracting I've been in a lot of places!) and more to the point I'm happy with what appears in my bank every month. I couldn't care less what the actual salary is and how much I lose in tax etc - I am simply happy with what goes in my pocket.

[J8 SVG]

One of my colleagues is obsessed with finding out what everyone else earns, always asking! Quite frankly I don't care! I go to work and earn the money I've agreed to work for and if you're more qualified than me or doing a more responsible role then of course you'll earn more than me, that's fine.

I got a 10% pay-rise this year though, I did tell him that

[dancole90]

TankRizzo said:

When I worked for the now-defunct EDS, it was actually a disciplinary offence written into your contract to discuss your salary with colleagues, whether on work premises or not.

Same at my place.

[vescaegg]

Personally I dont think anything good comes from knowing the salaries of people who are close to your level in your own company. Company outsiders or even insiders who are way above or way below dont really matter as they are far removed from your role but if someone is doing the same job and is earning more or less than you there will be annoyance on one side of the fence even if people pretend they do not care.

Money is (99% of the time) the only reason people go to work, and for someone to be getting more for doing the same or less will of course mean it feels like you are being mugged off. Most companies I know of work on the basis of 'non-disclosure' of salaries so you cant even go to a manager and say you want more becuse someone else is getting it.

No two people even work an exactly equal amount so even if two people are on the same money, one will ultimately think they should be on more as they try harder or do more.

[Origin Unknown]

Countdown said:

I'm financial controller so I know what everybody gets paid (as well as which hotels they stay at, what they use their company credit card on, what bonus their going to get).

Does it make me burn with bitterness, envy and jealousy?

God yes

We have a sales guy here who was a FD at another company and is suitably qualified.

His motivation to move to sales? He saw exactly what you see!

[H22observer]

J8 SVG said:

One of my colleagues is obsessed with finding out what everyone else earns, always asking! Quite frankly I don't care! I go to work and earn the money I've agreed to work for and if you're more qualified than me or doing a more responsible role then of course you'll earn more than me, that's fine.

I got a 10% pay-rise this year though, I did tell him that

I'm not surprised that you don't care. You got a 10% payrise and a tax cut, so you're be busy spending it instead of wondering.

Would you feel the same if you had a pay freeze or pay cut?

[H22observer]

dave_s13 said:

IanA2 said:

I find it quite difficult to understand the English obsession with secrecy regarding pay. In Italy when you meet someone the first three questions you are usually asked are, are you married, do you have children, and how much do you earn?

Maybe I'm missing something.

That would be consider crass and vulgar in our polite society. If someone asked me that as an ice breaker I would immediately think they were a bit of a tw@t.

That comes across as a bit sniffy and haughty actually. It's a simple question that is relatively inoffensive.

I think it says a lot more about the person who feels offended than it says about the person asking the question.

If somebody politely asks how much you paid for your house, would you also be offended?

[J8 SVG]

H22observer said:

I'm not surprised that you don't care. You got a 10% payrise and a tax cut, so you're be busy spending it instead of wondering.

Would you feel the same if you had a pay freeze or pay cut?

I didn't care before I had the pay-rise either! I'd feel like quitting if I had to take a pay-cut

Definitely busy spending it!!!

[Sheepshanks]

Puggit said:

As we had no IT in the UK (startup), the HR manager would often ask for assistance and once asked me to print a document for him - legal paperwork for someone in another EMEA country doing my role, salary details and all.

If you work in a multi-national company, the EMEA ones are always interesting. I've seen this in my last two jobs - the packages are usually way better and for France no-one seems to have twigged that that employees pay hardly any tax, the employer pays most of it.

[Sheepshanks]

Countdown said:

I'm financial controller so I know what everybody gets paid (as well as which hotels they stay at, what they use their company credit card on, what bonus their going to get).

Does it make me burn with bitterness, envy and jealousy?

God yes

Our FC used to take all the perks that salesmen did (lunches and dinners, claiming for the odd hotel night, football match tickets etc) until we got a new MD who stamped on it. He turned into a right grumpy git!

[elster]

HumbleJim said:

IanA2 said:

I find it quite difficult to understand the English obsession with secrecy regarding pay. In Italy when you meet someone the first three questions you are usually asked are, are you married, do you have children, and how much do you earn?

Maybe I'm missing something.

When asked I always lie...................... I deny any children.

I don't think I have been asked if I have a wife. I have been asked about a girlfriend though. I suppose it is the different people you work with and the industry to whether they expect you to have a bit on the side.

[Fotic]

H22observer said:

dave_s13 said:

IanA2 said:

I find it quite difficult to understand the English obsession with secrecy regarding pay. In Italy when you meet someone the first three questions you are usually asked are, are you married, do you have children, and how much do you earn?

Maybe I'm missing something.

That would be consider crass and vulgar in our polite society. If someone asked me that as an ice breaker I would immediately think they were a bit of a tw@t.

That comes across as a bit sniffy and haughty actually. It's a simple question that is relatively inoffensive.

I think it says a lot more about the person who feels offended than it says about the person asking the question.

If somebody politely asks how much you paid for your house, would you also be offended?

If I met someone for the first time and they asked if I was married and how much I paid for my house I'd laugh at their rudeness.

Despite you thinking it's not rude, it actually is really.

[SimonD]

The point about knowing other people's wages, whether it's right or wrong, is two-fold:

1) People want to know if they are getting what they believe they are 'worth', and the only metric for this is to find out what a colleague is earning
2) People are nosey.

About parents - I knew what my Dad 'earnt' (he's self employed) as he told me when I was 23 and wanted an idea of the cost of life so I could move out and to see if I could afford it. I've known what he's made since (although usually involved in a conversation around if he's retiring yet - he's 70 this year)

[jesta1865]

i am actually not sure what I earn as an income, as an IT contractor I know my salary and what I get as a dividend each month, but what that equates to in terms of paye i have no idea.

my wife brings home paye a little more than i do at present but once i have got to grips with my tax etc that may change.

i saw my dads pay slip once, he was a civil engineer, in a month he paid more tax than i (it analyst paye) my brother (accountant paye) and other brother (chemical engineer paye) brought home. yes we were all early to mid 20's but because of who he worked for, his bonuses, overtime and shift suppliments meant he was on way over 100k 20 years ago!

i thought we all had decent jobs till that day

[ooo000ooo]

One of our more useless sales girls left her payslip on the printer with the details of her quarterly bonus on it. It was triple what we thought she was getting. We wasted a lot of our time undoing the damage she was doing, advising customers what they should have been sold and basically doing what she should have been doing to start with.
After seeing how much we were earning for her, all her orders were pushed back for her to sort out herself.

[jimKRFC]

Where I am now everyone knows what band people are in so has a rough idea of what others earn. although no-one discusses it.

Where I used to work there are different grades with pay bands but they don't apply evenly. For example, my wife manages a man 2 (might be 3) grades lower than her, but he's paid a lot more. He's not the only one as well, there are numerous people that have are earning salaries way above their grade. As this would seriously annoy people discussion of salaries is discouraged.