It’s often considered taboo to talk with your co-workers about how much you earn, so when former Google employee Erica Baker started an internal spreadsheet for employees to share their salaries, it inevitably ruffled some feathers higher up in the company. However, as Baker revealed on Twitter, the spreadsheet enabled some employees to negotiate higher pay rates. With that in mind, we took to the streets to ask: would you be transparent about your salary?
Maria Bravo, 26, accounts assistant
“I prefer not to tell anyone but close family my salary. A payslip is confidential and it should stay that way.”
Neale Washer, 38, project manager
“When you start your job you enter into a personal agreement between you and your employer, so a payslip should stay private. Too much transparency complicates things.”
Shamila Arif, 31, surveyor
“I won’t discuss my salary with anyone other than family. I understand the need for transparency at work, but it could shift the focus from what people are producing to obsessing over how much other colleagues earn.”
Kevin Nimoh, 26, research analyst
“I earn £32,000 a year. I think it’s fine to be open about how much you earn, although maybe I would think differently if I earned more!”
Dan Fernandez, 40, marketing executive
“I keep how much I earn private; only my wife knows. Obsessing over how much your colleague earns is a slippery slope.”
Shelley O’Hare, 34, sales co-ordinator
“At my workplace, the pay grades are quite clear, so everyone knows how much people are earning. The culture of privacy should stay the way it is; salary transparency is more important for people working in the public sector.”
Nancy Manini-Serna, 47, UX designer
“I earn £50,000 a year, but I don’t really talk to colleagues about my salary. As a mother of two, I believe that adjusting salaries according to the cost of living in London is more pressing.”
Lisa Charalambous, 50, local authority worker
“I earn around £36,500 a year. Most of my colleagues and my family know. I can imagine it causing friction in workplaces if every employee listed their salary, though.”
Mona Lulla, leather exporter
“My family know how much I earn, but it shouldn’t be anyone else’s business. I work hard.”
Nina Swann, 40, music charity worker
“I earn £37,000. Transparency is a good way to deal with the gender pay gap, but it’s much more complicated than that; you have to be careful.”
