I love reading transparency reports, where businesses like Buffer, Mattermark and others at Baremetrics share everything about how their companies work, how much they pay for a particular role and how much profit they earn. This is a new trend and I can see some startups in WordPress community are picking up on that. WPRocket by Jean Baptiste (@jb_ma) and Ultimate Member’s Open Metrics by my friend Calum Allison (@calumallison) are two good examples of transparent business in WordPress sphere.
Last week people started sharing how much they earn on twitter when a hashtag #talkpay got popular. In accordance with WIRED
The movement was dreamed up by Lauren Voswinkel, a software designer, and was born out of the ongoing conversation about gender discrimination and inequality in the tech sector, and across the board in terms of pay in the US.
I consider it a serious paradigm shift in reference to tech people, which seems to be a good thing. As per my knowledge, in a lot of companies, discussing salaries with your colleagues is the easiest way to get fired.
Emily Drefuss (@emilydreyfuss) –News and Opinion Editor at WIRED wrote
I worked my way up the ladder and eventually became a senior editor in charge of a small team. When I was given the promotion, the company offered me $35,000 less than the man who had held the title before me. $35,000. Less. I knew this because he was my friend and he’d disclosed his wage to me. When I objected, they said it was because he had negotiated his starting salary from the get go; because I hadn’t I was locked in to certain restrictions about how much of a raise a current employee can get. When I again objected they said he had “priced himself out of a job” and had left himself with “nowhere to go in the company.” They thought I still had some growing to do. I grew right out of the company.
Following this trend on twitter made me realize that I was not the only one who hesitated to share his salary.
So, I went ahead and set up a Google form, made responses in this form public and tweeted about it.
I think this information could be very helpful. You should be inclined to agree with me if you have already read WordPress talent shortage by Andy Adams(@andyonsoftware), Why high performers quit? by Chris Lema(@chrislema) and The Salary Factor by Mario Peshev(@no_fear_inc) where he stated
I would gladly participate in and read on some numbers about salaries and costs in our industry. I’m passionate about that. And I’d also gladly earn as much as possible – because let’s face it, you can do everything you want with money – even donate 95% of it to charities – but you can’t afford it if the numbers don’t add up.
But let’s not compare apples and oranges only by price. And let’s consider the hundreds vectors that matter – and let the salary be just one of them.
So, how about we all contribute anonymously to help cater data which could predict trends in WordPress community in reference to how salaries vary based upon factors like Job Roles, Gender, Experience, Employment Type, Company Profile.
Participate Here#
Still with me? Like the idea? How about you add a response and re-tweet it.
Ahmad Awais
I am at my work. facebook is blocked here. :-( can you please share a link with out the redirection from the facebook
Thanks for pointing that out. I re-added the links.
Don’t forget to include the location as that is a major factor on really what the $s that make up the salary are worth – a reasonable 3 bedroom house in San Francisco for around $1.5 – 2 million dollars vs same house in Houston for $250k