Getting paid different amounts for doing the same work is inherently unfair. This is an issue that has been getting a lot of attention recently due to the gender pay gap — and rightly so.
But what if I were to tell you the pay disparity problem is way more ubiquitous and far reaching that you imagined? What if the disparity went well beyond the known factors such as gender and race?
I have been working in the tech industry for a little more than a decade and I’m finally coming up to the age and the experience level where most of my friends are becoming managers at different tech companies. As such, I’m getting a glimpse of how salaries work behind the scenes — and the stories I’ve been hearing are unsettling.
I can recount a story where a candidate was made a significantly higher offer than his peers simply because he is coming from a big company and his salary needs to be matched. Another story where the tight competition for talent among new grads meant them being offered higher salaries than those who had been working at the same company for a couple years.
I can go on and on with more stories like this. Where two people with the same title and responsibilities can be making significantly more or less than their peer. And this completely regardless of gender and race.
In a perfect world where there is transparency — where everyone’s salary is public information — issues like this could be caught and called out very quickly. But it’s safe to assume no company will ever want to take on this level of transparency (to be fair there are likely legal complications here).
This issue has been lingering around in my mind for quite some time. How can issues like this every be avoided? I have a few millennial friends, I amazed to see how transparent they are. They easily tell one another about their salary, as if it’s no big deal. Frankly, I feel like that may be the only answer to this problem.
Tell all your friends and coworkers how much you make and you’d be doing something to get us all to equality further.
