Facebook needs a salary field

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The NYT has an interesting article today about the surprising willingness of young people to disclose to peers their salaries—something previously taboo. This is especially interesting to me since I spoke to House chiefs of staff today about transparency. They are up in arms because a third-party website has made all their financial disclosure forms (which were always technically publicly available) searchable online. That’s right, if you’d like to know the salary of any Congressional staffer, just search legistorm.com.

We really seem to be moving towards a more personally transparent world and, as long as it’s voluntary, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. I know I certainly share salary information with peers in my professional circles. As an economist quoted in the article points out, how else are you going to determine the market price for your talent? “Robert H. Frank, an economics professor at Cornell, said that an open flow of information is deemed crucial by young professionals who think of themselves as free agents, not company men.”

Finding out that someone with a similar job is making more money than me isn’t embarrassing, it’s a godsend. It tells me my skills are valued and that I’m in demand. It can also highlight options. I know lawyers who graduated with me who are making close to double my salary, but are in the office twice as much as I am. Knowing this is valuable information for both of us.

Apr 28, 2008 | Comment | Tags: , ,

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