Hacker News Reader

Balsamiq,

How does the open salary policy work? Are salaries posted on a big white-board? Does the open salary policy have an effect on employee behavior? In many cases people are reticent and fearful to talk about/compare their compensation. People tend to attribute their personal self-worth to their number and consequently hold on to it pretty tight. How did you guys get over this particular hurdle?

View on HN

They are in a spreadsheet in a shared drive, along with all the rest of the stuff. What I have found is that because of our base salary policy, people don't really care about the hard numbers...they know that they are paid well and that their colleagues are paid well...at least that's from what I can see. One employee told me that they'll not look at the numbers because it makes them uncomfortable, and that's fine with me too.

Ah -- so it's just the base salary in that spreadsheet? Why not share total compensation as well (including bonuses)?

That stuff is there too (in the monthly expenses).

Really cool to see a company implement such open policies! Have you by any chance read Maverick or The seven day weekend by Ricardo Semler? Lots of similar ideas in there, and well worth the read!

http://www.amazon.com/Ricardo-Semler/e/B000APW260/

That's so awesome! How did you guys come up with this idea? Did it meet any resistance initially?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com