There’s like this weird culture around it where some may even consider it rude or too personal like it’s equivalent to asking someone their social security number or something
I’ve heard a rumor it’s because companies/bosses don’t want people to talk about their pay between employees because they may find discrepancies compared to their coworkers, but I’m not 100% sure that’s actually why since even their employees consider it taboo.
In: Economics
Because of the social and personal disruption it can cause due to the cognitive dissonance and disparity between the *appearance* of a salary being a simple objective number vs. the *reality* that it’s a very subjective and individual thing.
If one employee makes $100,000/yr and another makes $120,000/yr, there’s a very obvious objective difference there.
What isn’t obvious is which one does more, better, or higher level work. Which has special knowledge or skills that are currently valued higher. Which gets along better with coworkers, clients/customers, and managers. Which is more diligent, punctual, reliable. Which is more creative and open vs which is more stubborn and argumentative. Which has domain experience, company experience, knowledge, or connections from previous training or a previous job. Which is currently content vs. ambitious, complacent vs. always learning and growing. Which is simply easier to work with. Which have different benefits. And of course, which is more assertive and the better negotiator.
That’s in addition to things like where people fit in terms of budgeting and planning, of course.
The simple act of comparing two numbers really raises a ton of questions and a *lot* of subjective judgments. It all becomes baked into a number, and you can’t unbake the cake to see the ingredients and answer those questions.
Ideally, you’d know where you stand, your performance reviews are never a surprise, you have negotiated a salary that you’re comfortable with, and you know what needs to happen for you to get the next raise you want. So it shouldn’t matter what other people are making, and everybody talking about it should just be a trivial small talk thing.
But this is not an ideal simple world, it’s not objective but instead very subjective, very personal, and people get quite emotional about it. So that makes it rude and personal. Not because of the number, but because of all the other stuff.
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