Another round of salary talk, with some advice

From threads above

Dhruv Govil Today at 9:36 AM

I like that both California and New York now require them to give you the pay bracket

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22 replies

Edward Whetstone 8 hours ago

do they? I was just hired on to a CA company and nary a mention of brackets was made

Bob White 8 hours ago

Colorado requires that you put in the job listing

Dhruv Govil 8 hours ago

You have to ask in CA but they legally have to provide it to you

Bob White 8 hours ago

Personally I wish Colorado’s rule was nationwide. But I know that companies will fight that to the bitter end

Dhruv Govil 8 hours ago

I think it would also take away one of the arguments against unionizing

Dhruv Govil 8 hours ago

Since people think pay transparency will cause it to be harder to negotiate for some reason

Edward Whetstone 8 hours ago

… would’a been nice to know

Bob White 8 hours ago

Since people think pay transparency will cause it to be harder to negotiate for some reason

The frightening thing about arguments like this is that for most people, they are probably much, much worse at negotiating than they think

Edward Whetstone 8 hours ago

oh yeah, and one of the anti-union tactics is to imply that you are the one that people will be jealous and upset at because you might be the highest-paid.

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Edward Whetstone 8 hours ago

which in most cases, is unlikely

Edward Whetstone 8 hours ago

I went through some organizing training with TAG, it was very enlightening.

Dhruv Govil 8 hours ago

It’s the whole “temporarily embarrassed millionaire” mindset

Bob White 8 hours ago

God I hate that mentality

Bob White 8 hours ago

But it is so culturally infested

Thomas Moore 8 hours ago

Just checked one of our Colorado postings, and sure enough there’s a salary number there. Just the minimum, though. And an explanation that a number of factors could influence the actual salary amount offered.

Bob White 8 hours ago

Yeah, its actually why going “all remote” is tricky for some groups, because they have to post both the national listing, and the colorado listing

Steve Theodore 6 hours ago

Those public-pay rules are written on the assumption that people in the field are basically interchangeable. In a field like ours that’s rarely true the way it might be on a factory floor.What ends up happening is that instead of negotiating on salary you negotiate on salary band — I’m a tech artist III and your are a tech artist V kinda thing. So the posting rules don’t remove negotiating, they just move it to a slightly more abstract plane. (edited)

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Bob White 6 hours ago

Yeah, the whole power imbalance is hard to rebalance all the time

Thomas Moore 6 hours ago

Yeah. I would hazard a guess that if a company really wants you, and you want an amount above the pay range, they’ll find a way to meet it and/or add in other forms of compensation. Or they’ll stick to their guns and see if you’re really willing to walk. People who want to negotiate hard still can, but people who are not as assertive might benefit from knowing the pay range.

Dhruv Govil 6 hours ago

It really helps switching industries too. When I switched to Apple, I asked for the pay bracket and they told me. I’d have had no idea if they wouldn’t have

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Bob White 5 hours ago

Oh yeah, that is 100% solid advice

Steve Theodore 3 hours ago

If you are at a point in your career where you talk 1:1 to recruiters you should always ask how they do their pay brackets and if they have a target percentile. Most big companies do and generally the recruiters don’t mind telling.This stuff all falls most heavily on the young’uns who have neither the experience nor the data to navigate it well. But since our unofficial industry entry programs is " work a few years for a fly-by-night company that is barely viable and won’t be there in five years" most people will hit a few lowballs early in their career.Often the people running the company are just as clueless as a young dev – frequently its not exploitation so much as incompetence and wishful thinking that drives comp.

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More threads from above

Edward Whetstone Today at 9:32 AM

How is that not collusion? Just because it goes through a third party?

2 replies

Also sent to the channel

Dhruv Govil 8 hours ago

It would only be collusion if they use it to keep your pay stagnant and prevent poaching I believe

Steve Theodore 7 hours ago

The data comes in ranges and gives you something like the bell curve distribution. Most big companies pick a number to use as their starting point . Places’ I’ve been at have targeted 65th through 75th percentile for the market, so plenty of places are paying more and quite a few paying less.Generally only big companies pay for this data and the smaller ones wing it.