Ask HN: Should the factors deciding salary be open information?
I want to be as open about salaries (and equity) as possible with my employees, but at the same time, I appreciate that it's a really complicated subject from both a personal, and social perspective and from an economic one, and that whilst the people who work with me are very bright this isn't their field. People who are fantastic developers want to know they're well-compensated, and treated fairly, and they're always going to feel strongly about the outcome of the calculation that goes to determine salaries, but they're not necessarily prepared to, and certainly shouldn't be obliged to, delve into its intricacies.
I feel that the key is trust: if you don't trust your employer then an open salary policy like Hanno's seems a wonderful thing, but only because the alternative is something that you perceive to be an unfair system that's affecting your life but is hidden away from you. The ideal, to me at least, seems to be a system in which you trust that the outcomes will be just, but you don't know exactly how they're achieved; one in which nothing is hidden from you, but nothing is forced in front of you - if you want to ask about your colleagues salaries or the factors that were considered when they were decided you're welcome to and you'll be told, but generally you don't feel the need to, because nothing you see around you seems unjust.
It seems at first viewing that policies like Hanno's take difficult decisions that should be made by CEOs and the like and make them the responsibility of everyone - at the best it's lazy, at the worst it's actively deceptive.
I'd love to hear other people's thoughts - mine are still undecided.