Publishing your salary can hurt your future salary

Kev Quirk writes about people who’ve published their salary history online, and worries how it might skew readers’ perceptions in a keeping-up-with-the-joneses type way. Their article reminds me of that instagram effect where, because everyone posts their best selves and you know your whole self, it makes you feel bad. It’s an aspect of salary publishing I hadn’t considered, and I’m writing this response because Kev missed the aspect I had considered:

Publishing your salary can affect your future career.

I used to work at a career center in a public library, and one of the biggest pieces of advice we gave out was not to answer the salary expectation questions if at all possible. Ditto to the salary information for past jobs as well.

The reason is simple: posting your salary gives companies an opportunity to pay less, because they think you’ll expect less. Or they’ll think you’re not experienced enough, or too experienced or expensive, given your previous salaries. Basically, you don’t want to give the game away before it’s even started, especially in a negotiation that’s already so unevenly matched.

I suppose that if you’re comfortable in your job and think you’re fairly compensated, and your compensation has steadily increased over your career, you might not be at risk of what I’ve outlined above. But then you’re running into the problem that Kev brought up, so.

Ultimately, like Kev said, it’s your life, your career, your site. Do what you want. I don’t think I’ll be posting my salaries, even though I think the world would be a better place if we all did.