Salaries & Secrecy

“Very few people like to talk about how much money they make — especially not people who earn a lot of money. Since companies tend to be run by people who earn a lot of money, the result is a culture of silence and secrecy when it comes to pay…”

This excerpt comes from an article written by Felix Salmon, published on LinkedIn. The article begs the question: Why are salaries kept a secret?

Or rather, why should salaries not be kept secret, as they are most often today?

The article goes on, arguing that “There’s an unspoken assumption that any given person should be paid the minimum amount necessary to prevent that person from leaving. The simplest way to calculate that amount is to simply see what the employee could earn elsewhere, and pay ever so slightly more than that…”

Well, how about another question: can’t we do better than this? 

The answer is yes–a transparent culture is a better way. What if team members could see salaries, and what if they could also have the financial acumen to know why those numbers were fair?

At Edoc, we’ve long recognized that transparency with open books builds trust. It helps us keep, and furthermore reward, the talent that’s right for our organization.

It enables people to be treated like self-managing professionals. It enables them to make decisions that will go on to make a tangible difference in the company.

Quite frankly, it’s one of the ways we cultivate an authentic culture.