Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 105 total)
  • If A Colleague Asks What You're Paid, Would You Tell Them?
  • molgrips
    Free Member

    Our company has bands. We all know what band we are. However, the salary ranges for the bands overlap hugely, and pepole’s band doesn’t reflect the job they actually do. Some of the most remarkably brilliant pepole are in fact on the junior bands. Bonkers it is.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    One thing I will say is that there seems to be a lot wider wage ranges in the UK than in Sweden, which is maybe why people are more open about it.

    Hardly surprising you’ve gone from one of the most unequal societies to one of the most equal in terms of wealth!

    chewkw
    Free Member

    Yes, I will tell them if they want to know but sometimes I don’t even know how much I earn as my contract changes every year. 😯

    p/s: I work in a bureaucratic organisation and I don’t even have a clue the pay scale I am on … 😆

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    Drac
    Full Member

    I’d tell them to stop being lazy and check the NHS pay scales.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Surely we are just one of the least equal WESTERN societies?

    The-Swedish-Chef
    Free Member

    I hadn’t appreciated at the time how varying the pay levels were in the UK, and consequently how grossly overpaid I was.

    curiousyellow
    Free Member

    @MSP
    I meant why does a guy senior to me who’s definitely being paid more than I am care what I’m earning?

    samuri
    Free Member

    He’s looking to see who the most likely person to sack is.

    bwfc4eva868
    Free Member

    Again NHS so i tell them what band and pay point I’m on. Band 5 point 19. But i do alot of weekend lates and lates so get slightly more 🙂

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Surely we are just one of the least equal WESTERN societies?

    ok, fair point.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality

    cheers_drive
    Full Member

    I’m surprised at how equal the US comes out in that. Higher than Sweden for instance.

    andrewh
    Free Member

    I suspect most people wouldn’t reveal on here what they’re paid.

    £17,250, gross.
    .
    Those of my colleagues who have asked I have told, those who haven’t asked I haven’t. On a you tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine basis. I’m in admin so I see a lot of people’s anyway.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    I’m surprised at how equal the US comes out in that. Higher than Sweden for instance.

    Same here, but there are so many different ways of measuring it.

    Kahurangi
    Full Member

    I’d feel uncomfortable telling colleagues and friends but I would – knowledge is power, power is money and money is shiny bikes.

    It’s going to be especially useful if/when I come back to the UK for a bit and need to whore myself out (apparently being a kept man isn’t an option any more) amongst the companies I used to hear from.

    p.s. being paid in NZ$ is great. The number are bigger!

    NZCol
    Full Member

    being paid in NZ$ is great. The number are bigger!

    But ultimately not worth anything anywhere else 😉

    bokonon
    Free Member

    I’m surprised at how equal the US comes out in that. Higher than Sweden for instance.

    Not sure we are reading the same thing – which measurement brings out the USA above Sweden? I could only find ones where Sweden was more equal than the USA.

    totalshell
    Full Member

    i and two of my colleagues were threatened with written warnings for discussing salaries..every little helps to keep staff happy

    konabunny
    Free Member

    Did seem quite a ‘fair’ scheme…..

    It’s not fair – it’s age discriminatory. If it were on the basis of experience, that might be fairer.

    I’m surprised at how equal the US comes out in that. Higher than Sweden for instance.

    I think you might be reading the scale the wrong way around – for example in the Gini coefficient the lower the number, the more equal. Sweden is 25, the US is 45.

    This is virtually unenforceable, particularly following the equality act 2010 – if someone is trying to establish if there is a case for an equal pay claim, then they are allowed to ask and people are able to tell them, no matter what the contract says.

    Do you have any more information on this statement?

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    To the OP as to why a senior person wants to know? They think your either very underpaid or very overpaid 🙂 They are also very overpaid if they didn’t just think of calling HR.

    Worked on bands when I was last in the UK, simple and effective but left no way to reward someone who was doing well.

    Prior to that had contractor hourly rates, turns out after revealing mine I was being paid more than my boss, they just paid people what they could negotiate on entry and never looked at it again!

    _tom_
    Free Member

    I dont get why people are so uptight about it.

    miketually
    Free Member

    My job has a publicly available pay scale. I’m on P3, which is £36,642 gross. That’s about £2000 net per month.

    grantway
    Free Member

    Simply say for what I do.. Clearly not enough !

    FunkyDunc
    Free Member

    I cant understand why people are so guarded about it. Its very easy to guess the rough value of what some one is paid.

    prettygreenparrot
    Full Member

    Would I tell? Depends on why they say they’re asking.

    I remember the leader of a training course I was on asking whether people at our place knew what each other were paid. As a former blue chip HR exec he expressed surprise that we did not. He considered it bad form not to know as it stopped people asking ‘why are they paid more than me?’. And that can apparently affect your desire to learn and improve. He was surprised when we expressed our belief that revealing your pay might be a disciplinary matter.

    In England there seem to be a number of factors that affect how readily folks share the value of their pay: occupation, employer, class, origin, location…

    Its very easy to guess the rough value of what some one is paid.

    It might be in some places. Where I am, our grades have only a minimum value for base pay, with no upper limit. Additional benefits (pension contributions, car allowance, etc) vary according to a number of factors. The factors that affect base salary and benefits are sometimes not obvious.

    cheers_drive
    Full Member

    My salary will be £10k this year. But thats because I’m a contractor 😉

    DrP
    Full Member

    I just look at the latest daily mail figures, double it, then tell my butler to Brag about the incomprehensible number to the gentry at the local club.

    Or so the press would have you believe…

    DrP

    _tom_
    Free Member

    I suspect most people wouldn’t reveal on here what they’re paid.

    £32.5k, still not sure how I got to this position (considering I work in a “creative” role) but I’m really not complaining, just consider myself very lucky!

    bokonon
    Free Member

    Do you have any more information on this statement?

    Section 77 of the act literally says these clauses are “unenforceable if…”

    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/77

    Daffy
    Full Member

    Always. People seem to assume I’m paid a lot more than I am.

    curiousyellow
    Free Member

    @samuri

    He’s looking to see who the most likely person to sack is.

    I’ve already handed my notice in!

    @mikewsmith

    To the OP as to why a senior person wants to know? They think your either very underpaid or very overpaid They are also very overpaid if they didn’t just think of calling HR.

    I know I’m underpaid, that’s part of why I’m leaving! I started here as a very junior person (lowest of the low) and worked my way up. He wanted to know what I’m currently paid, and where I’m leaving to is paying me.

    We work in an industry where you can see what market rate is by simply going on a job site. Industry standard qualifications mean you can quite easily assess your worth. He knows what qualifications I’ve got because he mentored me for a while.

    hora
    Free Member

    No I will never tell or ask. Opens up a can of worms. If you are contractors its different as you could be gone by the end of the week anyway.

    When people find out, they might say nothing much to you but believe me they are saying to others ‘cant believe hes on more than me’. Sometimes they go straight upto their boss. A big fuss is kicked up and they get an increase. You wont know this unless you are called in to explain why you told them (often they’ll let it slide but they’ll mark your card).

    MSP
    Full Member

    Most people seem to assume that they are paid more than their colleagues, but have no information to base that assumption on.

    Must have been to the Gove school of statistical analysis.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    anyone asks at my place – i just give them my basic – that shuts them up enough..usually followed with you do that – for that only that much……

    dont tell them about the bonus’ (im not a city banker ;))

    King-ocelot
    Free Member

    I was surprised to learn in my last job I was on £2,000 pa more than my senior and was offered another £2,000pa not to leave. I still can’t work that out. Currently being interviewed for a few more ‘career’ jobs while in the meantime I’m stacking shelves for minimum wage 🙂

    footflaps
    Full Member

    I dont get why people are so uptight about it.

    Because it can and would cause a lot of resentment.

    In the private sector (SME rather than large corps) there are often huge disparities in pay rates as peoples all get to a role / level via different routes, so you can do the same job as someone else yet be on 50% to 150% of their salary.

    I’ve had to deal with this no end of times, but the way pay reviews work, with a fixed % pay uplift pool for a given group, it’s very hard to make a big change to one person without using up all the pot, so it can takes years to slowly iron out pay anomalies.

    bruneep
    Full Member

    anyone asks at my place – i just give them my basic – that shuts them up enough..usually followed with you do that – for that only that much……

    dont tell them about the bonus’ (im not a city banker ;))

    Your basic in oil is way more than my top line.

    As for a bonus what is that?

    curiousyellow
    Free Member

    so it can takes years to slowly iron out pay anomalies.

    By “slowly”, do you mean “never”? I have seen guys with aptitude improve at a mercurial rate. Especially in technical disciplines. Their pay never catches up unless they move jobs.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    By “slowly”, do you mean “never”?

    Not always but it might take 5 years or more, the higher the pay the harder it is to adjust. Giving a graduate starter a 25% or 50% pay rise is relatively cheap. When you have senior engineers on over 6 figures, it gets a bit more tricky…..

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    bruneep – you a crew manager or a watch manager ?

    youll be surprised how close we are on basics if either is correct.

    ebygomm
    Free Member

    Footflaps, that’s all benefits to the employer to keeping pay secret, what’s in it for the employees?

Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 105 total)

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