Radical Solution Time

[andrewducker]

So, I was reading the recent news saying that the Gender Pay Gap in the UK is still bloody ridiculous, containing yet another example of a woman who worked somehere for years before discovering she was being paid 2/3 as much as the two men doing exactly the same job she was.

And I thought of the simple, obvious answer.

Everyone's pay should be a matter of public knowledge.

You want to know if the useless bastard in the corner is paid more than the genius savant sitting next to him?  Fine.

Want to know if you're being paid as much as someone in exactly the same job in a different company.  No problem.

Want to know if your manager is paying the blondes in the office more than the brunettes?  Knock up your own spreadsheet.

Fuck it - everyone will be embarassed about their own pay for about 3 days - and after that it should knock some sense into management who think they can treat some people like shit because they never ask for a raise, or get away with inequitable treatment because nobody ever talks about it  If they can't justify the pay they give, openly and transparently, then they shouldn't be bloody well paying it.

Oh, and £26,000, in case you were wondering.

Comments

[notosa.livejournal.com]

I work in management and only just found out exactly what my 12 staff below me are earning, i was dismayed to find that there were differences ( not too substantial but still differences,) and some of the people being paid more were far from the best of my staff... I wanted to rectify it, but my manager said straight out. NO. We are not allowed to talk about it, its a severely diciplinary thing, just like bonuses, i found out that as a 'retention' thing one of my staff under me got the same bonus as I did. I wasnt impressed, but from a mananagemnet point I understand how important it is not to have individuals pay public knowlegde. how many people think they deserve more when they dont, and vice versa I guess as well.. employee performance is not exactly measurable.. Sure you do 100 deals a day, but how much crap do other people have to clean up your mistaks on after. Is that person the same performer and worth more then someone who does 70 deals and gets them all right

[andrewducker]

So you're saying that because management aren't willing or able to explain to people that they don't deserve the same pay, people shouldn't be allowed to know that they are?

Sounds like the equivalent of security through obscurity. If you can't explain it to them, then the explanation probably doesn't hold water. If you're letting people get away with producing a lot of crap, without telling them that it's causing them to get paid less, then you're probably not doing a good job as a manager...

[notosa.livejournal.com]

The catch is their pay is not based on performance... that opens another kettle of fish and those sorts of people are happy in performance driven jobs. like sales. producing crap doesnt cause them to be paid less. they all do their job, but the people who do more dont they deserved to be recognised for it? if not then more money then a promotion.

[andrewducker]

Why on earth doesn't producing crap cause them to be paid less????? I get 3 performance reviews a year, which let me know how I'm doing in all sorts of ways, and I work in code development, which is hardly a measurable area.

If people are doing more then it should be justifiable to pay them more. If it's justifiable, why hide it?