Comment by lotsofpulp
3 years ago
> Information asymmetry is a natural thing.
What does this mean? Why does natural even matter? Humans changed a lot of things that are “natural” to better their lives.
>It benefits job seekers too because your prospective employer does not know everything about them.
Temporarily embarassed billionaires. Aka you like to think you are the 1% who can out negotiate an employer because you are so in demand. 99% of people will be at a disadvantage no matter what.
Also, https://theworknumber.com/
> If all info was freely available knowledge brokers would have immense power.
What is the purpose of a “knowledge” broker, if the thing they are brokering is already available to everyone?
No he’s right. It used to be in my state that prospective employers could ask for salary history with proof. If you are leaving a place because of bad pay or just that you want to make more money the discussion was always tethered around your previous pay.
A few years ago my state made it illegal to ask for that information, and can now only ask our salary expectations. It’s now tethered around what you want to make.
This led to a HUGE increase in my comp.
> If you are leaving a place because of bad pay or just that you want to make more money the discussion was always tethered around your previous pay.
The employer wanted you to think that, but it was actually tethered around your other job offers and your willingness to say no.
If you have access to information for what other employers are paying, and are potential other options for your employment, the employer will know you know this.
More importantly, you will not have to waste your valuable time figuring out what other employers are paying, so you have to do less work to figure out the market.
The employer most likely already knows the market, that is part of their daily duties, and know that applicants have to do a lot of work to figure out the market. Hence trying to use people’s previous pay to lowball them, since they know that people only know that.
You could have just said no.
Even if data is freely available evrerywhere it means it becomes a valuable occupation to collect it and exploit it and this is what a knowledge broker is.
Why is this framed negatively as “exploiting”? What is the problem with a business springing up that collects labor pricing information and provides a resource to labor sellers on where the market is indicating more demand for labor?
Right now, labor buyers can buy the same exact information, and as a result, labor sellers are being exploited.