Show HN: Let's end the Programmer Salary Taboo

Re:Show HN: Let's end the Programmer Salary Taboo by IgorPartola on Wednesday April 13, 2011 @10:44AM (#2442446)

Just one correction: your employer will also know exactly who you are by just your salary alone. Chances are not everyone is making the same amount and if you say you make 100,760,000 rubles, it's easy enough to just look it up. Your co-workers of course don't have this info.

I personally liked the other trick better: the one that gives you the average salary. Or maybe median is more appropriate. The point is that it'd give you an idea of whether you are making more or less than at least half your co-workers.

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Re:Show HN: Let's end the Programmer Salary Taboo by pdx on Wednesday April 13, 2011 @11:28AM (#2442684)

I agree that there is too much information here to stay anonymous from your boss.

Instead, you could generate the histogram of the entire sample set, perhaps curve fit, so it's not obvious for small sample sizes, how many people contributed. Then you put a little red "You are here" dot on the histogram so they see how they compare. This robs the employer of any data they can use to see who partook in the experiment, while still giving the same information back to the employee.

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Re:Show HN: Let's end the Programmer Salary Taboo by akronim on Wednesday April 13, 2011 @06:03PM (#2444435)

The median can also be an actual salary, which may or may not give it away.

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Re:Show HN: Let's end the Programmer Salary Taboo by ohyes on Wednesday April 13, 2011 @04:21PM (#2444004)

Average and standard deviation would do the trick, then you know where your salary is placed within a normal distribution.

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