Salary Transparency

My Personal Salary Transparency

In an effort to not bury the lede, I want to start by noting that my personal salary history is now publicly available on this site.

I have made this step in an effort to help lead the way among those who wish to share, compare, or research salaries in my field. I feel that this is a necessary step in order to de-mystify the compensation culture in the US workplace.

Why?

Over the years, I have faced situations that would have been alleviated by pay transparency:

• Co-workers being paid significantly less/more while holding similar education, certifications, and skills.
  • Some of these included people in the same demographics as myself and some other situations included people of different ages, genders, etc.
• Potential applicants not understanding pay scales for certain roles or industries.
• Interviewers not disclosing salary until the end of the interview process.
• Colleagues not understanding how certain degrees, certifications, or accomplishments on the job can affect salary and/or bonuses.
• Employers hiding their decisions on raises/promotions and vaguely referencing "market value" without any further comment.
• Interns and/or staff without enough career knowledge to even know where to begin due to compensation being a "taboo" topic.

While discussing my thoughts and sharing facts and data with those I have encountered during these situations, my experience is a single data point in a sea of employees.

Equitable compensation will only continue to occur if we all shake off the awkwardness of discussing salaries and be honest about our experiences.

Why Now?

For years, I have been thinking about ways to publish my salary data transparently online but I never landed on a good format or delivery method. After stumbling on Xe's salary transparency page, I decided to simply mimic that approach for now.

I may alter my design in the future and include more details or visualizations reflecting cost of living, but I like the way it sits right now.