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Comment by dist-epoch

14 hours ago

Yes, it's great for businesses, you can search for the cheapest labor, and helps you avoid paying someone much more than they previously earned.

That's more of an American thing, wages in places like Denmark are much more set by the job classification and maybe seniority, not individually based on one's background and what one previously earned.

  • Really? What about the experience or specific domain knowledge one brings without seniority? Isn’t their specialised knowledge or talent not rewarded?

    • the real reward is the equality of dignity we earned along the way.

      it's a real cost, and a real benefit. I guess values vary on which is more important.

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And private individuals as well, as you can see what your colleagues earn without having to ask anyone, and can even see what your boss earns, or what the competitor to your current workplace earns! I have to say salary negotiations are a lot more straightforward (and fun) in Sweden as an employee than other places I've worked.

Overall the benefits for employees seems way broader than the benefits for the companies.

  • FWIW, wage transparency has been studied quite a bit in economics literature. The short version is that while it does reduce wage variance i.e. wide differences in pay for the same job, it also consistently reduces average wages.

    On a purely economic basis, wage transparency primarily benefits employers because it reduces how much they need to pay based on actual performance in practice.

    • > On a purely economic basis, wage transparency primarily benefits employers because it reduces how much they need to pay based on actual performance in practice.

      Why would transparency reduce how much employers have to pay? Usually capitalists would make the opposite claim, by keeping salaries opaque, it's much easier for employers to underpay people, but you seemingly are making the opposite claim.

      If I can see how much my employer pay others, doesn't that help me ensure I too get fairly compensated from the employer? How could the employer leverage this situation to pay me less than I already know I'm worth?

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