Talk About Your Salary

Everyone should be more open about this

When I graduated college I got a job making $68,500 per year. It was not my dream job - far from it - but I took the job to make some money while I kept looking for new jobs. I know, this is not something you’re “supposed” to do, but that’s what I did. And three months later, I found a new job, at my dream company, and they offered me $55,000 per year.

I used that first job’s salary to negotiate the new job’s salary up to $65,000 per year. Honestly, I would have taken the job at $55,000; I was just so excited for it. I only negotiated because everyone told me I should. And the dream job lived up to everything I’d hoped. I loved the company, I loved the work, and I had great coworkers.

There was one coworker who did similar work to me, and we had similar job titles. She had started at the company a little over a year before me, right out of college. We were walking around the city one day and started talking about how we both got overtime pay when we worked late, even though we were salaried employees. I said something like, “Yeah, I found that surprising, since aren’t we over the legal salary amount there they’d be required to pay us that? LIke $60,000?”

There was an awkward pause, and then she said something like, “What do you mean?”

After another pause, we both revealed our salaries. She was making $55,000.

It was a weird feeling, and my initial reaction was outrage at the company. My coworker was great at her job. Sure, she and I brought different experiences to the table. But she had been there a year before me - she’d trained me on a lot of what I worked on! I had figured she was making at least as much as me.

That was when I realized that companies pay you based on what you negotiate, not only on merits, and staying at a company longer isn’t necessarily going to make you more money. And that companies hope you won’t talk about how much money you make, so you never think you’re underpaid.

It’s not like this in every profession, of course. My sister is a teacher, and when I’ve talked to her about this, she’s said, “Of course everyone should talk about their salaries. Mine is publicly available online,” which is true of many public professions. Some bigger companies, too, might have more structure, where everyone at the same level is at least within the same pay band. But at everywhere I’ve worked, I started before there were any type of pay bands.

And yet, talking about salaries is still considered taboo, like something you only whisper about in the hallway when you’ve really gotten to know a coworker and you’re sure no one from leadership is listening. Even though, yes, it’s illegal for an employer to tell you not to talk about your salary.

Some people, personally, don’t like talking about salaries. Sure, it hasn’t felt great when I’ve learned about coworkers with less qualifications making more money than me. But it’s empowering to know that information, and use it to negotiate a raise.

If I leave you with any wisdom - if I can call it that - I’d say to talk to everyone you can in your field, with your job title, about how much money they make. It’s one of the best things you can use in a negotiation.