Comment by velcrovan

3 years ago

If it is legislated that everyone has to do it, then people looking to sell their labor can do so with perfect knowledge of where the market is at, reducing the negotiating strength of these shitty companies.

This is how it already works in Norway. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40669239

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velcrovan

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tristor  3 years ago

And how is tech compensation in Norway compared to the US? That's what I thought...

  • velcrovan  3 years ago

    The raw numbers are different, I’m guessing (I haven’t looked). A tech worker in Norway also pays less for healthcare and housing, is healthier, spends less time in traffic and lives in a society where everyone lives safer and more equally, and has more power to walk away from a shit job than someone in the US. It’s a system that values autonomy for the most people over the power of a tiny sector of the economy to rake in maximum dollars, and wage transparency is just a small feature of that system.

    But yeah if it doesn’t bring you personally more money I guess it’s not even worth thinking about

    • sofixa  3 years ago

      > A tech worker in Norway also pays less for healthcare and housing

      Also doesn't start their work life with tens of thousands of debt at exorbitant rates that can't be discarded, childcare costs less, they get paid time off for leisure and for being sick, don't have to keep a rainy day fund of 6 months in case they get in a crash, get scammed with an ambulance ride and hospital bills, and lose their job over it, etc. etc.

      There is so much more than just raw numbers for a salary it's kind of sad how many people use that as the only metric.

    • RestlessMind  3 years ago

      > A tech worker in Norway also pays less for healthcare and housing,

      A tech worker in SV has healthcare covered and makes so much more than a Norwegian that they can afford SV rents.

      > is healthier,

      Life expectancy in Norway: 83. Life expectancy of northern Europeans in the US: 83 for men, 85 for women [1]. Wrong to look at life expectancy at a state level since it is based on cultural/ethnic traits and not based on your passport. Same numbers for East Asia - men (85), women (88) which is similar to East Asian countries (eg. Japan @85).

      > lives in a society where everyone lives safer and more equally

      More equally - not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Depends on the details. Though looking at the number of talented individuals flocking to the US from the supposedly egalitarian countries, it seems US is doing something good.

      [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5026916/

    • WrongAssumption  3 years ago

      you are the one that brought up negotiating power in the context of pay transparency. In fact it is the one thing only consequence you listed in the original post. It’s unfair of you to throw back in their face that they addressed the one and only factor you listed.

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