[HN Gopher] Microsoft Announces It Will Include Pay Ranges in Al...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Microsoft Announces It Will Include Pay Ranges in All U.S. Job
       Postings
        
       Author : blue_box
       Score  : 530 points
       Date   : 2022-06-10 13:24 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.forbes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.forbes.com)
        
       | Fargoan wrote:
       | I wonder if this applies to contractors working at their
       | campuses. From what I've heard, here in Fargo most of the people
       | working at the Microsoft campus work for Archway
        
       | indymike wrote:
       | Job posts with a pay rate get about 28% more applications than
       | those without. Some job boards that syndicate jobs from other job
       | boards will insert an "estimated salary" or "industry salary"
       | just to get more clicks if you don't include a salary.
       | 
       | Source: my company does recruitment advertising for many other
       | companies, and including salary is something we coach our
       | customers to do.
        
       | ComputerGuru wrote:
       | Microsoft already posts salaries for remote or potentially remote
       | positions to comply with Colorado law - but I have not seen Meta,
       | Netflix, etc doing the same under similar circumstances.
        
       | ENOTTY wrote:
       | Given that most big tech companies' base salary tends to plateau
       | and total comp begins to be dominated by stock grants and
       | performance bonuses, just how much real transparency is actually
       | going to be provided?
        
         | wing-_-nuts wrote:
         | Yeah without TC this isn't really all that useful.
        
         | InefficientRed wrote:
         | Agreed 100%. At big tech salary is close to useless and rarely
         | the primary number that changes during negotiations. My highest
         | paying job -- a 3.5x raise -- came with a $75K salary cut
         | compared to my previous job.
         | 
         | This should be, by far, the top voted comment. I don't think
         | MSFT sharing salary ranges is consequential in any way.
        
           | JamesSwift wrote:
           | Sure it is.
           | 
           | If more start to do it, it becomes an arms race. If a company
           | is loading the compensation in other ways and coming in light
           | on salary then their job posting becomes much less compelling
           | for job seekers. So they have a choice: disclose the other
           | compensation (in order to compete with the salary numbers of
           | the other companies) or adjust their compensation to be
           | heavier on salary so their numbers are in line with others.
        
             | bluGill wrote:
             | That depends on what the other things are. Most years I get
             | half of my take home pay in December because of my bonus
             | (some of that is my 401k maxing out in November), there
             | have been a couple bad years where the bonus was less, but
             | at least I was able to keep my job. Keeping my job is a
             | factor as well, since I have a family to support, if I'm
             | laid off (like most companies do all the time) that means
             | I'm scrambling to figure out how to get cash, while I can
             | live off of the smaller paychecks I get.
             | 
             | That is me - what is the above worth to you? If you are
             | risk adverse like me, then you like that plan. Others want
             | the cash now but can accept the risk of losing their jobs.
             | Some have a high risk tolerance and like getting their
             | money in stocks - in the best case this is the most money,
             | but in the worst case it is the least. There is no right
             | answer.
             | 
             | In the end you need a certain amount of money to live. That
             | is different from your actual value.
        
               | r00fus wrote:
               | This would be included in total compensation (which
               | should include non-renumerative benefits as well). In
               | sales, where total comp could be mostly commission (I've
               | seen a 25/75% split in some cases) the company should
               | have some idea of what the bonus/commission range is.
        
               | tshaddox wrote:
               | Out of curiosity, why does your 401k max out in November?
               | If your employee does matching then wouldn't you want to
               | spread it as evenly as possible throughout the entire
               | year?
        
               | InefficientRed wrote:
               | November is pretty close to the whole year. If you choose
               | a fixed % per paycheck and have a bonus that's not
               | perfectly amortized then being off by a month is actually
               | pretty good.
        
               | tshaddox wrote:
               | I assumed that employer contribution matching is
               | generally a fixed percentage of the employee's salary
               | each pay period, which means that if you don't contribute
               | in one month you forfeit that percentage of your salary
               | and thus about 8% of your total possible employer
               | matching.
        
               | endianswap wrote:
               | At least in my case as an engineer at a smaller tech
               | company my 401k (and corresponding match) maxes out each
               | January because that's when bonuses are granted.
        
               | InefficientRed wrote:
               | Note: you can set your contribution % to 0 in January and
               | then change it in February. This can be worthwhile
               | because you then DCA throughout the rest of the year. On
               | the other hand, by contributing everything in January,
               | you get the employer match earlier. And over a 30 year
               | career it's likely a rounding error.
        
               | InefficientRed wrote:
               | I've seen it work different ways and different companies.
               | It's either a % of salary or a % of your gross paycheck.
               | In the latter case, bonuses can mess things up.
        
               | bluGill wrote:
               | Every company I've worked for accounts for that. I get my
               | full match no matter when I max my 401k out. Of course
               | different companies work differently.
        
             | com2kid wrote:
             | I'm sad more companies don't up their 401k contributions,
             | most people don't realize their employer can put in 40k a
             | year (!!!) into an employee's 401k. Due to the wonders of
             | tax law, that is equiv to 60k cash, and that isn't counting
             | the earnings or the flexibility to reallocate 401k
             | investments w/o having to pay taxes on earnings when
             | changing where the money is invested.
        
               | snuxoll wrote:
               | One benefit of not working for Big Tech and instead for a
               | privately held company, instead of stock grants I get
               | 120% match up to 6% of my salary and an annual 4% profit
               | sharing bonus into my 401(k). Sure, my actual salary
               | could be higher working for a "proper" tech company, but
               | I get more employer contributions into my retirement
               | savings than the Google's, Microsoft's, and Amazon's of
               | the world will give to an employee capping their
               | contributions.
        
               | pnw wrote:
               | If Microsoft put 40k a year into everyone's 401k they
               | would immediately trip the Highly Compensated Employee
               | test and have the IRS breathing down their necks.
        
               | joshuamorton wrote:
               | If microsoft put 40K a year into everyone's 401k it would
               | be impossible for them to violate the HCE test, as every
               | you'd have non-HCEs with a 401k contribution of 30% or
               | higher, something which HCEs are literally unable to
               | match.
        
               | tshaddox wrote:
               | > Due to the wonders of tax law, that is equiv to 60k
               | cash
               | 
               | And equivalent to 0 cash for paying the rent. I suspect
               | that's why it doesn't seem to be a prominent concern in
               | discussions about tech compensation.
        
               | deelowe wrote:
               | BS. There's nothing stopping you from maxing your 401k
               | and then pulling it back out taking the penalty. This
               | applies to a ton of benefits people naively don't take
               | advantage of from HSAs to employee stock purchase plans
               | to 401k. It's almost always beneficial to maximize your
               | tax advantaged accounts even if you're paying penalties
               | on the back end.
        
               | afrodc_ wrote:
               | I don't know about you, but with tech salaries, rent is
               | the least for my concern. I think that's true for most
               | people that don't live in ridiculously high cost of
               | living areas.
        
               | tshaddox wrote:
               | Perhaps, although until COVID (and we'll see what happens
               | with remote work compensation in the long term) nearly
               | all people with huge big tech compensation packages lived
               | in ridiculously high cost of living areas. I suspect a
               | very large portion still do. In the Bay Area I've heard
               | no shortage of stories of couples/families with _two_ big
               | tech salaries still spending very large portions of their
               | paychecks on rent /mortgage.
        
               | nfriedly wrote:
               | Seriously! I've considered going back to contracting just
               | so that I could fully fund a 401k account.
        
             | sokoloff wrote:
             | For the longest time, Amazon's cash salary cap was well-
             | known to be in the middle $150K range. I don't see any
             | evidence that hampered their ability to attract job
             | seekers.
        
             | Solstinox wrote:
             | Arms race (which will lead to bigger salaries) or price
             | collusion (salaries stay the same)?
        
               | rsanek wrote:
               | Wouldn't be the first time
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-
               | Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...
        
               | JamesSwift wrote:
               | I think its more likely to be an arms race now that the
               | "remote work" dam has broken and work location is not as
               | important as during the time of the previous well-known
               | collusions.
        
         | gigel82 wrote:
         | Not for Microsoft though; their stock grants are :peanut_emoji:
         | compared with other top tier companies (Source: levels.fyi); so
         | this probably a good thing overall...
         | 
         | EDIT: just found out HackerNews is stripping out unicode emoji
         | characters from comments.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | r00fus wrote:
         | The side effects of this move are probably bigger than the move
         | itself. Hopefully this induces other companies to advertise
         | their salary ranges as candidates (it's still a candidate's
         | market out there) use Microsoft's ranges as reference for
         | negotiating salaries on other non-MS jobs.
         | 
         | Essentially this will push salaries up to match the massive
         | inflation we've seen recently. Likely this will result in a
         | homeostasis at some future point.
        
         | llbeansandrice wrote:
         | More people work for Microsoft than just engineers. This
         | applies to all of their US job postings. Just because you
         | specifically don't get much benefit doesn't mean it's not a
         | good thing.
        
       | Victerius wrote:
       | Can a company make an offer outside its stated range?
       | 
       | E.g. What if Microsoft has a job opening with a range of $110k -
       | $170k, and the candidate they selected used to make $180k and
       | would like $200k? Will Microsoft offer him or her the 200k they
       | seek or offer 170k and lose their candidate?
       | 
       | If salary ranges can be bypassed, then they are not really
       | useful, and if they can't, by law, companies could skirt the law
       | by offering higher bonuses and more stock, or else lose on
       | talent. Or the company could close the job opening, and create a
       | new posting with an updated range for the sole purpose of being
       | legally able to hire their candidate. Which would still
       | invalidate the spirit of the law.
       | 
       | I'm not sure these salary transparency laws are good for workers
       | or companies alike.
        
         | Gustomaximus wrote:
         | > If salary ranges can be bypassed, then they are not really
         | useful
         | 
         | Sure they are. With common sense and fines for clear ongoing
         | breaches it will do as planned.
         | 
         | There are always exceptions so if occasionally a salary is
         | bypassed to match the candidate, higher or lower this is going
         | to happen and be reasonable.
         | 
         | If 30%+ of candidates get paid less than the advertised role
         | there is a clear case of bait and switch for authorities to
         | show a court type deal.
         | 
         | I feel you need to approach this from altitude rather than
         | individual cases.
        
         | grimjack00 wrote:
         | > E.g. What if Microsoft has a job opening with a range of
         | $110k - $170k, and the candidate they selected used to make
         | $180k and would like $200k?
         | 
         | If I was reviewing job descriptions, and the max of the posted
         | range is less than my current salary, I'm probably not going to
         | apply.
        
           | Victerius wrote:
           | Another situation: You make 160k, the max range is 170k, but
           | you'd like more than the max range. In the old world, this
           | would work. You would gain more comp, and your new employer
           | would acquire your talent. It's the free market at work. In
           | the new world, neither of those will happen. I'm concerned
           | about the consequences of that on economic growth and
           | innovation.
        
             | kirillbobyrev wrote:
             | Are you saying that the employers won't give 170k+ if the
             | disclosed max range is 170k? I highly doubt that, the only
             | change here is that the range that was previously only
             | visible to the hiring managers within the company is now
             | also visible to the candidates. If they could go beyond the
             | internally visible range before, they would surely be able
             | to do it now. The only difference is that before the
             | candidates would have no idea whether they're already maxed
             | out on the given range or if there's still plenty of room
             | to negotiate.
        
               | BuckRogers wrote:
               | I don't buy it either. I think overall more people will
               | be lifted up, than some guy that wants 200K and the
               | highest paid employee is currently 160K, will be held
               | down. In fact, I think that's blatantly obvious.
               | Companies are going to lose with this because this
               | industry has so much exploitation going on, that San
               | Francisco alone isn't counterbalancing it or even close.
        
             | snowwrestler wrote:
             | Salary bands are tied to title. If the max range of the
             | listed position is $160k, and the company wants to hire you
             | for $200k, they will just hire you into a more senior title
             | (which has a higher range).
             | 
             | This is how it happens now, and how it will still happen.
             | Disclosing the initial range target does not prevent it.
        
         | throwaway0a5e wrote:
         | Probably easier to have multiple reqs for the same job under
         | different titles to cover a broader range or throw perks of
         | hard to define monetary value at the wall until something
         | sticks than to go through whatever process would be required to
         | offer outside the range.
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | Or $170K is the most they're willing to offer for a
           | particular position. And, if someone wants significantly
           | more, they'll just pass. Companies will find ways to make
           | exceptions for someone they really want--including creating a
           | new position for them. But companies won't always salary
           | match.
        
         | RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
         | > E.g. What if Microsoft has a job opening with a range of
         | $110k - $170k, and the candidate they selected used to make
         | $180k and would like $200k? Will Microsoft offer him or her the
         | 200k they seek or offer 170k and lose their candidate?
         | 
         | They can also negotiate seniority/level. So if they really
         | wanted that person, and they were originally planning on hiring
         | as a Level N Engineer, they could negotiate to hire at a Level
         | N+1 engineer that has the desired salary.
        
       | DeathArrow wrote:
       | About salaries at Microsoft. I interviewed with them this year.
       | 
       | I did a Codility test, followed by four interviews with four US
       | based teams.
       | 
       | I got an offer which is 5 to 6 times what they pay in US.
       | 
       | I live in a country in Eastern Europe, and prices are a bit
       | lower. I would have expected a lower offer, but not that much
       | lower. It was less than I already make so I had to wish them good
       | luck in finding another person and was feeling sorry that I lost
       | so much time in the interviewing process and also invested a lot
       | of energy.
        
         | cjbgkagh wrote:
         | I presume you mean 1/5 to 1/6th.
        
           | brianwawok wrote:
           | Maybe the low offer was due to an off by order of magnitude
           | math mistake?
        
         | masterof0 wrote:
         | Microsoft is known and memed on the "big tech community" for
         | paying "peanuts" (less than other tech companies). Is the rest-
         | and-vest kinda of place, or so they say. I'm sure there are
         | some teams that work pretty hard, is a big company.
        
         | TrackerFF wrote:
         | Interestingly enough, I know MS (engineering) managers in other
         | European satellite offices that make absolute bank. Easily 4-5
         | times more than comparable jobs at domestic companies.
        
         | zeroonetwothree wrote:
         | Now you know to ask for compensation up front.
        
           | BuckRogers wrote:
           | Everyone always says this is a RED FLAG, so I've hesitated to
           | do this myself. But I value my time more than I care about
           | being "flagged" as a dissident against company interests. So
           | I do that now with the initial HR interview. The energy put
           | into this can be completely insane as per the GP's
           | experience.
           | 
           | What we need is just a certificate that proves competency, so
           | we can remove all these exams, quizzes and foolishness.
           | Typically, that was a computer science degree, but there
           | wouldn't be enough degree holders to fill all the roles, and
           | wages would skyrocket. So some sort of interview meatgrinder
           | it is I suppose.
           | 
           | As a result of all this, I wouldn't do this career path over
           | again, and won't be recommending it to my kids. Companies
           | will have to reap the rewards for their downward pressure on
           | wages by going to India. They will continue to have to hire
           | there for the next 20 to 100 years. And once the Americans
           | are out of the industry, I think the Indians won't always
           | take things lying down like we do in the US. I suspect
           | they'll unionize and make life hell for these corporations. I
           | hope the Indians become insanely wealthy from it, and US
           | corporations will deserve it.
        
       | ChicagoBoy11 wrote:
       | This is going do to absolutely nothing. Most of this legislation
       | does nothing to really address the potential for folks to just
       | advertise incredibly wide potential salary ranges, to say nothing
       | of alternative ways that they can change total compensation "for
       | the right candidate," if you catch my drift. I would suspect that
       | the biggest effect of this is to actually lead to overall greater
       | distrusts, as folks will make all sorts of assumptions based on
       | the ranges they see for jobs at their companies, based on their
       | own biases. True transparency which would require something like
       | disclosure of average/median total compensation at the company
       | for that role, for instance, would be incredibly meaningful, but
       | it will never come.
        
         | _fat_santa wrote:
         | I live in CO and we recently had a similar law pass that
         | required companies to disclose salary ranges. Like you said it
         | does absolutely nothing, companies will list "Senior Software
         | Engineer" with a salary of "$70k - $240k". This often times
         | isn't even the range for the current position, but the "entire
         | range" of offers they extend to any level of SWE.
        
           | bfung wrote:
           | Even so, the bright side is that the applicant's expectation
           | of the low end has been set.
           | 
           | Without this broad range, someone new to the industry, like a
           | college grad, has no idea what the low range is. This at
           | least prevents those people from getting lowballed and
           | finding out later.
           | 
           | I've seen smart techies who are bad or oblivious to money
           | subjects get way under paid, only to learn later, huge
           | discrepancies in pay with the same or lower grade position
           | due to other factors like gender, race, etc.
        
           | athorax wrote:
           | That is explicitly called out as not being allowed:
           | 
           | "An employer cannot post a $70,000-$100,000 range for a
           | junior accountant position just because it pays senior
           | accountants at the high end of that range. But it can post
           | $70,000-$100,000 for an accountant if it does not limit the
           | posting to junior or senior accountants, and genuinely might
           | offer as low as $70,000 for a junior accountant, or as much
           | as $100,000 for a senior one."
           | 
           | https://cdle.colorado.gov/equalpaytransparency https://cdle.c
           | olorado.gov/sites/cdle/files/INFO%20%239_%20Eq...
        
             | zeroonetwothree wrote:
             | Seems impossible to enforce in practice
        
               | kimbernator wrote:
               | Due to my recent job search for remote positions in the
               | US, I've seen a lot of postings in CO which include the
               | salary ranges. While some do use stupidly wide ranges,
               | most companies post more reasonable ones. I'm able to
               | filter out those in the former group because this law
               | they have has effectively exposed their dishonest hiring
               | practices, and the companies that aren't trying to
               | obfuscate their pay have also been exposed.
        
               | rednerrus wrote:
               | Can they just audit the actual salaries paid vs the range
               | listed at the end of every year?
        
               | nfriedly wrote:
               | That sounds like an incredible amount of work. Who is
               | "they" and who is paying them to do all of this auditing?
        
               | jjav wrote:
               | One "they" is the state government, who happens to
               | already have the info sitting in their databases due to
               | W-2s being reported.
        
           | nomilk wrote:
           | Not only are the salary bands meaninglessly wide, but I'd bet
           | that if someone was really great and justified more than the
           | upper bound, the company (Microsoft, but any other rational
           | company too) would, of course, pay that higher amount since
           | it's in their interest to do so.
        
             | lotsofpulp wrote:
             | They are not meaninglessly wide. These laws are of great
             | benefit to those earning the least in society. They get to
             | easily see which occupations and businesses pay more and
             | where their labor should be allocated.
        
           | KingMachiavelli wrote:
           | Even if the range is too large it is still extremely useful;
           | it shows the company _doesn 't_ want to post a meaningful
           | salary range which means salaries offered will be in the
           | lower portion. Companies that are prepared to offer a
           | competitive salary have every incentive to make the lower
           | number higher than their competitor's listings.
        
         | naikrovek wrote:
         | I want to be snarky and compliment you on your clairvoyance
         | while pointing out that you are only guessing, and instead I'll
         | just ask why you think this kind of thing is never coming,
         | given that some companies already do this.
        
         | rootusrootus wrote:
         | I tend to assume that, at best, a company advertising a range
         | of X-Y is going to offer something around (X+Y)/2. So if you
         | tell me some ridiculous range, I'm going to assume your offer
         | will suck, and I'll just skip it.
         | 
         | Everyone is better served by accurate ranges, it avoids both
         | sides wasting time because of mismatched expectations.
        
         | xhkkffbf wrote:
         | I can see some heartache if they advertise the range as between
         | $X to $Y and then they make an offer that is much closer to $X.
        
           | Broken_Hippo wrote:
           | Possibly, but that's basically the applicants choice to go
           | ahead and apply (within the normal confines of "choice" in
           | work). At lest there is a bottom they can expect. This won't
           | even be that often if the company is actually upfront about
           | how it determines pay: Higher for x qualification, lower
           | without the optional qualifications/experience.
           | 
           | On the other hand, some folks will be happy about that bottom
           | since it will be either more than they expected or more than
           | they are making now.
        
         | ironlake wrote:
         | All regulations have limited effectiveness. This one is a step
         | in the right direction. The tech industry tends to dismiss
         | government action as misguided, unenforceable, or watered down.
         | Meanwhile, the free market gives us Ring cameras where the data
         | is fed directly to the state for illegal surveillance.
         | 
         | Regulations are an integral part of a free society.
        
         | psyc wrote:
         | Internally, salary ranges at MS are quite narrow by job and
         | level. Particularly since they're more compressed toward zero
         | than at the FAANGs and Unicorns. Why would they invite trouble
         | by not simply publishing those?
        
           | brianwawok wrote:
           | Is this for like a level 6 dev?
           | 
           | Will someone applyling know if they are a level 4 or a level
           | 7 dev? How?
        
       | Chinjut wrote:
       | It's incredible in these comments that so many of you who work in
       | the industry on the employee side are arguing against having more
       | transparency for the employee, and for having more leverage in
       | the negotiating process for the employer instead. I want all the
       | advantage as an employee that I can get. Any secret withheld from
       | me is not to my advantage.
        
         | kccqzy wrote:
         | I think for most people external tools like levels.fyi are
         | already good enough in that they provide a salary range with
         | sufficient accuracy. Of course these same people would hope
         | that the other candidates haven't heard of levels.fyi so that
         | companies can lowball them to have more budget for the salaries
         | of those who have heard of levels.fyi.
         | 
         | It's just selfishness, not collective action.
        
           | rat9988 wrote:
           | It's misguided selfishness because other people raising their
           | price would raise yours too.
        
         | hcnews wrote:
         | In 2022, you have to assume a fair amount of activity on
         | popular boards/forums/subreddits/twitter etc. has been
         | purposefully influenced by nefarious parties.
         | 
         | In more concrete terms, I do think there are a fair amount of
         | bots/paid-commenters on HN who push for anti-progressive agenda
         | which helps maintain status quo.
        
           | ketzo wrote:
           | I mean, you don't even need to reach that far.
           | 
           | Many commenters here are either currently on the employer
           | side of a salary negotiation, or imagine that they will be
           | some day.
        
       | WalterBright wrote:
       | I would have been paid less in companies I worked for under this
       | system.
       | 
       | Be careful what you wish for.
        
       | logicalmonster wrote:
       | Just to play Devil's Advocate: being explicit about salaries is
       | the kind of practice that sounds amazingly good on the surface,
       | but might have some unintended real-world consequences.
       | 
       | For instance, whereas before when salaries weren't explicit, a
       | weaker candidate with some good qualities who was on the bubble
       | for consideration might be able to get a job if the salary was
       | more favorable than the company was initially planning. With
       | explicit salary ranges, if the candidate isn't deemed good enough
       | to warrant hitting that predefined range, they might be
       | unemployable in that field and not gain the experience needed to
       | progress. In the past, a weaker candidate might have been able to
       | go for a lesser salary range, get the job and gain more
       | experience, and maybe make it up down the line. Maybe that's no
       | longer a path forward for a lot of people on the bubble.
       | 
       | And stronger candidates who are perfect fits and world-class
       | performers might be lost for a lot of companies because the
       | company has the excuse of a pre-defined salary range. So maybe
       | firms miss out on some genius, perfect fits, because the bean
       | counters can't be bothered to assess everybody's merits
       | individually.
        
         | pjbeam wrote:
         | Salary is just one component of total comp, and in my (tech)
         | experience not generally the biggest one.
        
         | bena wrote:
         | What do you think happens now?
         | 
         | Because that is pretty much what happens now, except now the
         | applicant doesn't know the range.
         | 
         | The only thing that can happen with this is that people who
         | think they're worth outside the range won't apply. And this
         | isn't that much of a problem.
         | 
         | If the employer finds they aren't getting the quality of
         | applicant they desire, they have an option: increase or change
         | the range.
         | 
         | There is a lot of information asymmetry in hiring and most of
         | it benefits employers.
        
         | s1mon wrote:
         | Yes, these are both real risks.
         | 
         | There are potential solutions. There are so many job levels at
         | big companies like Microsoft. A candidate who is weaker could
         | interview for software engineer 3 (made up title for example)
         | and be offered a software engineer 2 position with the
         | understanding that the company sees potential, but wants to
         | start the person at what they see as an appropriate level.
         | 
         | The high performing candidate may ignore a job listing for a
         | position which doesn't have a high enough top end to the range,
         | but perhaps if they are being recruited rather than approaching
         | the company, the recruiter could recognize the value of the
         | candidate and find a higher role which would have a more
         | competitive salary range.
         | 
         | Some companies can only hire specific advertised roles, but in
         | many cases they advertise for one role/level and end up hiring
         | candidates for others. Big companies could also have open reqs
         | for more levels than they think they need, and then slot the
         | candidates in to the level which makes sense.
         | 
         | Another approach they could take is to make the published
         | salary ranges more broad than the are in practice. Hotels in
         | many places have to publish the room rate, but typically this
         | is an insanely high number which only happens when there's a
         | special event or something.
        
         | tcskeptic wrote:
         | Most companies have explicit and firm salary ranges for
         | positions already -- I would bet MS is one of them. They just
         | didn't put them in the job postings until now.
        
           | bluGill wrote:
           | We just made an offer to someone that was far more than
           | asked, our salary range doesn't go that low. It is to our
           | benefit to give a fair offer as we will train this person and
           | want them to stick around not leave in a year when they get a
           | better offer.
        
           | thebean11 wrote:
           | Most companies the size of MS, yeah
        
         | wfhordie wrote:
         | The problem you mentioned is already solved using the
         | contracting system.
        
         | mywittyname wrote:
         | I feel like most places would be open to hiring a senior in
         | place of a principle if they felt either, the senior could do
         | the job well enough.
         | 
         | At some places I've worked, level was determined after the
         | decision to hire. A position would be open to levels I, II, &
         | III, and a panel of people would determine which level they
         | felt the candidate would come it at.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | matwood wrote:
         | I don't think any of these ranges are binding. They simply give
         | the candidate more information to negotiate with. So a company
         | could end up offering more or less than the range, but they
         | need to be ready for a conversation as to why.
        
         | sokoloff wrote:
         | Job postings with a range use the term range in a much looser
         | than the mathematical sense. In mathematics, if I say the range
         | is 100-200, I'm telling you that 95 and 205 are not possible.
         | In job postings, if I say the range is 100-200, 95 and 205 are
         | still possible. 100-200 was just a (hopefully) good-faith
         | estimate of the range.
        
           | willcipriano wrote:
           | It's really the low number I want. What is the least you
           | would offer someone who can fill this role? Jobs can have
           | dramatically different expectations depending on the company
           | and that number helps me understand what your level of
           | expectations are.
        
         | BlargMcLarg wrote:
         | >they might be unemployable in that field and not gain the
         | experience needed to progress
         | 
         | This is why we have different types of skill levels. If you
         | can't hire the person as a medior but you have a junior
         | position open, surely you can tell them with the associated
         | benefits. If its a problem, surely you can justify given the
         | requirements.
         | 
         | Hiding information only to waste people's time upfront isn't
         | helpful when society expects job searching to a part-time job
         | on the side of another job. Maybe this is too aggressive a
         | measure, but getting "competitive" as an answer sure isn't
         | helpful either.
         | 
         | >And stronger candidates who are perfect fits and world-class
         | performers might be lost for a lot of companies because the
         | company has the excuse of a pre-defined salary range.
         | 
         | I doubt you're going to pass a great candidate because they
         | exceed your mentioned range when internal budget can still be
         | stretched. At worst you could argue the high earners aren't
         | going to pick your job because your range is too low, which can
         | be solved by simply adjusting your range. If budget can't be
         | stretched, odds are you weren't going to hire them anyway.
        
         | stardude900 wrote:
         | I can only speak for when I was a hiring manager and we called
         | them bands, but it was essentially the same thing. We attached
         | a band to every job posting and we would occasionally interview
         | promising candidates and offer them the top end of a lower band
         | or we'd offer them a more junior position with a promise of an
         | early promotion review. Some took it, some didn't.
        
       | nomilk wrote:
       | What's the actual problem that including salaries tries to solve?
       | IMO if used strictly, it could only _limit_ the talent pool
       | (consider if someone more skilled than expected applies, but won
       | 't accept at or below the stated upper salary bound; the company
       | won't be able to pivot and hire them).
       | 
       | Including salary _could_ let applicants avoid underpaying
       | companies _before_ they embark on a lengthy application process,
       | which is beneficial, but don 't companies already have strong
       | incentives _not_ to exploit people in this way since they 'll
       | only leave shortly afterward and those onboarding costs would be
       | false economy.
        
         | nvr219 wrote:
         | > What's the actual problem that including salaries tries to
         | solve?
         | 
         | It tries to solve pay equity problems.
         | https://hr.uw.edu/comp/pay-equity/salary-setting-guidance/
        
           | nomilk wrote:
           | > Employers must provide equal compensation to similarly
           | employed workers
           | 
           | The kicker is "similarly employed". I've seen people with the
           | same job title earn a differential of 3x, but that's simply
           | because one negotiated better and was more economically
           | valuable (had about 1.5 more decades' experience) than the
           | other, yet they had the same job title. I guess we could
           | argue to control for years' experience, but I've seen people
           | who were better at a job after 6 months than those in the
           | same job were after 10 years. There are even jobs where
           | people get _worse_ over time, which isn 't intuitive but easy
           | to find examples (e.g. you forget documentation if life gets
           | busy for a year or two, and you're less effective because of
           | that).
           | 
           | I suspect "similarly employed" is indefinable in any
           | realistic sense. I'm not against trying, just very sober
           | about the probability of crafting a policy that outperforms
           | the imperfect but free-ish market.
        
             | lotsofpulp wrote:
             | Beginner microeconomics courses teach that for the best
             | allocation of resources, a market must have price
             | transparency. How else are market participants supposed to
             | ascertain the movements of supply and demand curves?
        
               | nomilk wrote:
               | > How else are market participants supposed to ascertain
               | the movements of supply and demand curves?
               | 
               | The problem is jobs aren't homogenous, so comparing
               | salaries is meaningless, not only for applicants but also
               | for the company itself. Imagine you find 10 people whose
               | resumes look similar on paper, but after you interview
               | all ten you realise there are some you'd hire in an
               | instant, others you think are just okay, and some you
               | think are awful. It's so obvious why their salaries would
               | differ, and I find it very challenging to make any good
               | argument otherwise.
               | 
               | So, how can market participants ascertain supply and
               | demand (and hence, price)? The answer is they can't, but
               | they're no worse than companies, academics, government or
               | anyone else - without assessing the _individual_ , I
               | don't think it's possible for anyone to know.
        
               | lotsofpulp wrote:
               | Hence a salary range. No one is forcing anyone to pay
               | everyone the same, even if it is the same job title. The
               | most important part of these laws is actually just the
               | minimum. People need to know which business and employers
               | to avoid and which to go towards. Sorting job listings by
               | bottom of the pay range can help them save time.
               | 
               | In any case, for any marker, the more real time
               | information, the better.
        
       | gigatexal wrote:
       | Awesome. I love this. This just granted +100 goodwill to MSFT.
        
       | givemeethekeys wrote:
       | Does this include executive roles and total compensation or just
       | the base salary?
        
       | rsanek wrote:
       | I see many concerns here mentioning how this may not be a useful
       | law because the company may create very wide ranges. It sounds
       | like there are some restrictions in the law that try to prevent
       | that, but I wonder if we should be looking at it a different way
       | -- provide both the salary range for the position _and also_ the
       | range of the salaries of the existing employees in that same
       | position.
        
       | awsrocks wrote:
        
       | epwr wrote:
       | > Microsoft said it would disclose salary ranges in all internal
       | and external U.S. job postings no later than January 2023. That
       | date is when Washington state, where Microsoft's headquarters are
       | located, will start requiring employers with at least 15
       | employees to disclose salary ranges for each position.
       | 
       | In other news, Microsoft to comply with a new law.
        
         | chrismeller wrote:
         | "Software Engineer I - 40-250k"
        
           | ekianjo wrote:
           | anything preventing them from doing very large ranges like
           | that?
        
             | treis wrote:
             | It says you have to post "the" salary range. So you can't
             | have an actual salary range and then post something
             | different. Most corps will have realistic salary bands and
             | when they create job reqs it will be for a specific level.
             | It's possible that some will call everyone engineers and
             | have a band like that when you include interns. But that's
             | not how most of them operate.
        
             | llbeansandrice wrote:
             | FWIW the similar Colorado law prevents this
        
             | PragmaticPulp wrote:
             | Yes, it would discourage some candidates from applying if
             | they see the average within that range is lower than the
             | average they could get anywhere else. Dirty tricks are also
             | a red flag for candidates.
             | 
             | However, while that range is an exaggeration, the truth is
             | that salary ranges for positions are actually much wider
             | than candidates may expect. There's a misconception that
             | open positions have a single "correct" salary and that the
             | negotiation process is all about getting the company to
             | reveal that maximum number. It's not true, though. Ranges
             | exist because even within a certain title, candidates have
             | a wide range of skills and locations (especially when
             | hiring remote/international) really do matter, whether or
             | not you think they should.
             | 
             | More broadly, the salary range isn't even necessarily the
             | only range they'd be willing to pay you. It's actually not
             | uncommon to interview someone and realize that their career
             | level is either above or below the position they're
             | interviewing for. In that case, you "decline" the candidate
             | for the position/title/pay range they applied for but
             | continue the interview for a different position.
             | 
             | For example, if someone applies for SW ENG II but their
             | compensation ask is in the range of SW ENG III (and their
             | talents match) then you just bump them up. Conversely, if
             | someone applies for SW ENG II but they're interviewing
             | below the level of your SW ENG II candidates, you offer to
             | continue the interview at the lower SW ENG I title/salary
             | if they're willing.
             | 
             | So the ranges are still just a starting point. There is no
             | magic trick to force a company to reveal the maximum number
             | they'd pay _you_ specifically. It 's still a negotiation,
             | but at least you can order job postings somewhat.
             | 
             | I actually think the bigger problem we're going to see is
             | companies bait-and-switching candidates by putting a huge
             | upper range number in the job posting but then offering
             | them the bottom end of range while claiming that they can
             | work their way up the range later. A lot of eager
             | candidates are going to be pulled into companies who claim
             | to have high upper limits, but who tell them they need to
             | start at the bottom of the range and move up.
        
               | russellendicott wrote:
               | Yeah, I expect it will turn into a game and companies
               | will just explode the number of positions so "Software
               | Engineer 1" will become
               | 
               | Software Engineer 1a (60k-70k) Software Engineer 1b
               | (70k-80k) Etc...
        
               | coding123 wrote:
               | If someone is a III and applied for a II, the company
               | would likely hire them as a II.
        
               | bombcar wrote:
               | They'd likely _offer_ at a II but _reoffer_ at a III if
               | there were competing offers, or really wanted the
               | employee.
               | 
               | Or, sometimes, the fight was already done internally for
               | a III and the manager wouldn't want to lose that, and so
               | will hire at a low III.
        
             | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
             | I am _told_ that judges tend to be unimpressed with
             | technically following a law in a way that blatantly ignores
             | the intent; I suspect that if you tried to claim a larger
             | range than actually exists in salaries you actually pay
             | then they 'd still find you to have broken the law. But
             | IANAL and know nothing of the specifics; take with large
             | grain of salt.
        
             | chrismeller wrote:
             | Nothing I see in the bill [1] says what an acceptable range
             | is.
             | 
             | 1: https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5761&Year=
             | 2021...
        
           | pulse7 wrote:
           | "Any Job ... 0-1B"
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _In other news, Microsoft to comply with a new law_
         | 
         | Microsoft is under no obligation to comply with Washington law
         | outside Washington. That's what they're doing here.
        
           | TulliusCicero wrote:
           | Since their largest workforce is in Washington state, it's
           | probably just less risky to make this their overall US
           | policy. Making a different policy for HQ vs everywhere else
           | could easily lead to mistakes and accidentally breaking the
           | law.
        
             | Dylan16807 wrote:
             | It can't be _that_ hard to follow this law in specific
             | places. This is a meaningful policy decision, not just
             | following risk.
        
               | TulliusCicero wrote:
               | I think you'd be surprised. Though the problem isn't that
               | it's hard to follow in the general case, but that things
               | could potentially slip through the cracks.
               | 
               | Corporations are risk averse, they don't want to have to
               | deal with potentially getting sued if a job opening
               | starts out in one area and then moves to another one
               | where suddenly the way the opening is described is
               | illegal.
               | 
               | It's just easier to do it the same everywhere if the
               | advantage they're giving up is small.
        
               | InitialBP wrote:
               | > It can't be that hard to follow this law in specific
               | places.
               | 
               | Directly from the article: "Pay experts have long
               | predicted companies would not want to mess with different
               | practices in different states. Doing so not only
               | complicates hiring practices for human resources
               | departments, ..."
               | 
               | There is probably a lot more nuance and qualifications of
               | when it's necessary to disclose and from a company that
               | employs more than 150k employees (according to a quick
               | google) there's probably even more complexity and chaos.
        
               | pnw wrote:
               | There will be an army of lawyers trying to monetize any
               | errors by companies, since the WA bill 5761 allows a job
               | applicant to sue for potential lost wages plus interest.
               | Microsoft is just getting ahead of the lawsuit curve.
        
               | sangnoir wrote:
               | > It can't be that hard to follow this law in specific
               | places
               | 
               | The problem is that 'specific places' very dynamic, and
               | is hard to pin down when it comes to employment. A
               | candidate/employee may move to/from jurisdictions where
               | this is a requirement, and job postings may or may not be
               | shown across different jurisdictions.
               | 
               | Does Microsoft want to invest time wrangling in court
               | concerning a Colorado resident not seeing the pay range
               | when they are using a VPN? Or when a candidate becomes a
               | Colorado resident some time between the phone-screen and
               | the first interview? Should Microsoft recruiters stop
               | using external job-boards, and instead wait for a salary
               | geo-fencing feature to be implemented in their internal
               | jobs tool? What is the case law for out-of-staters who
               | will be moving into a state with such a law for
               | employment? How about remote candidate in Texas, working
               | for a team based in Washington - and the reverse? There
               | are dozens of edge cases, and for a company the size of
               | Microsoft, can easily result in hundreds to thousands of
               | infractions per year - the juice may not be worth the
               | squeeze.
        
           | wing-_-nuts wrote:
           | Probably easier to just do it for everybody than have two
           | separate listings for WA and the rest of the US. I wonder if
           | this is TC or just salary?
        
             | sgerenser wrote:
             | Everything I've seen so far is just salary. Which is kind
             | of a huge loophole for tech companies where 20-60% of
             | compensation is often in the form of stock and bonuses.
        
               | lotsofpulp wrote:
               | I am curious what level of details the text of the law
               | requires:
               | 
               | https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?billnumber=5761&year=2
               | 021...
               | 
               | https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2021-22/Pdf/Bills
               | /Se...
               | 
               | >disclose in each posting for each job opening the wage
               | scale or salary range, and a general description of all
               | of the benefits and other compensation to be offered to
               | the hired applicant.
               | 
               | What is general description? Is that how many RSUs? Does
               | it require showing what metal level health insurance is
               | offered and specific the employer paid proportion?
        
           | superfrank wrote:
           | My guess is they see the writing on the wall with this one.
           | Colorado and Washington both have laws about this now. I
           | wouldn't be surprised to see California and New York
           | implement something similar in the next year or two.
        
             | dragonwriter wrote:
             | > I wouldn't be surprised to see California and New York
             | implement something similar in the next year or two.
             | 
             | California started the trend with its "on reasonable
             | request" pay range disclosure law, and has an proactive
             | disclosure bill that has passed the Senate and is pending
             | in the Assembly this session (DB 1162). But even without a
             | proactive disclosure law, voluntary proactive disclosure
             | reduces the request load for on-reequest disclosure, and
             | consistency is cheaper to implement internally.
        
           | bena wrote:
           | It's probably a move just to make it easier on themselves.
           | 
           | They want to streamline the job posting portion of HR. They
           | don't want to have to worry about whether or not they have to
           | post the salary range, so they just do what the most
           | demanding law they deal with requires.
           | 
           | Now they only really have to deal with areas that have laws
           | that contradict with laws in other areas. Then you'd default
           | to the law that benefits you the most and deal with the
           | contradictory areas explicitly. Since you have to do the work
           | anyway.
           | 
           | For example, let's pretend that California had a really
           | stupid law that forbid salary ranges from being posted on job
           | listings. _Now_ Microsoft has to be careful about how and
           | where they post jobs. And since it 's beneficial for them to
           | hide the information, they'd likely only post the salary
           | ranges where they were required to.
           | 
           | But absent that, don't do work you don't have to do.
        
             | bombcar wrote:
             | It also makes sense when you realize more and more jobs are
             | "Location, or remote" and "or remote" would cover
             | Washington and Colorado.
        
           | NaturalPhallacy wrote:
           | It's simpler and easier to do it this way. Which is what
           | they're doing here.
        
           | epwr wrote:
           | This article [1] seems to state pretty clearly that the law
           | applies to all job posting by a company in Washington state.
           | Any sources saying it's only about jobs open to Washington
           | residents?
           | 
           | [1] https://www.dwt.com/blogs/employment-labor-and-
           | benefits/2022...
        
             | JumpCrisscross wrote:
             | > _sources saying it 's only about jobs open to Washington
             | residents?_
             | 
             | Washington state can't regulate how Microsoft hires people
             | in Texas.
             | 
             | Microsoft Corp. isn't even a Washington legal entity.
             | (EDIT: Never mind, I stand corrected [1]. In any case, the
             | broader point stands. Delaware doesn't get to regulate how
             | its entities hire outside Delaware. This is well-settled
             | employment/interstate commerce law.)
             | 
             | [1] https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/789019/
             | 00015...
        
               | andjd wrote:
               | Legally, a company is subject to state laws of their
               | state of incorporation (usually Delaware, for various
               | reasons) _and_ their state of 'domicile', usually where
               | they are headquartered. They are also subject to state
               | laws in states where they operate.
               | 
               | So yes, in this situation, even if MS were incorporated
               | in Delaware, Washington state could pass laws that bind
               | how the company acts anywhere in the world.
               | 
               | Washington also isn't the only state passing this style
               | of law. Putting up the systems and processes to comply
               | with this law only for Washington-based positions would
               | probably not be worth it.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _even if MS were incorporated in Delaware, Washington
               | state could pass laws that bind how the company acts
               | anywhere in the world_
               | 
               | This is not true [1]. It's especially untrue with respect
               | to employment, a domain in which federal statute has a
               | lot to say about who can regulate whom.
               | 
               | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormant_Commerce_Clause
        
               | LargeWu wrote:
               | You are misreading this. The Dormant Commerce Clause is
               | relevant when talking about applying laws unequally for
               | the purpose of protecting in-state commercial entities.
               | For instance, if companies based out of state were
               | subject to salary disclosure laws, but Washington based
               | companies were not.
               | 
               | In this case, Dormant Commerce does not apply since the
               | salary disclosure laws apply to any company operating in
               | the state, regardless of where they're headquartered or
               | incorporated. It applies equally to all.
        
               | lozenge wrote:
               | That's specific to state protectionism though. The law
               | applies equally to jobs posted inside and outside the
               | state so the Dormant Commerce Clause is not relevant.
        
               | paulmd wrote:
               | What are your qualifications to be dispensing legal
               | advice in this area, if any?
               | 
               | Yes, a company headquartered in california is (in many
               | cases) still bound by california law even if the employee
               | is located in another state. The obvious example is non-
               | compete clauses, a california company still usually
               | cannot enforce a non-compete even if the law permits it
               | in the employee's state.
               | 
               | However, this situation is what's called a "conflict-of-
               | law" and it basically comes down to the way the court
               | interprets it.
               | 
               | Take it from the actual lawyers:
               | 
               | > The circumstances that present the strongest case
               | against enforcement of such an agreement involves a
               | noncompete agreement between a California-based employer
               | and a California-based employee. But not all cases are
               | that simple; whether California law applies depends upon
               | the application of "conflict of law" rules.
               | 
               | > "Conflict of law" rules allow courts to determine what
               | state's laws apply when the laws of more than one state
               | might apply to a dispute but would produce different
               | results. For example, a noncompete agreement between a
               | California-based employer and a Nevada-based employee
               | that was signed in Nevada could be construed under Nevada
               | or California law, depending on the circumstances. If
               | Nevada law applies, the restrictive covenant might be
               | enforceable against the employee. If California law
               | applies, it will not be enforceable.
               | 
               | > Because of these issues, parties often include choice-
               | of-law provisions telling a court to apply a particular
               | state's law rather than determine what state's
               | substantive laws apply under a conflict-of-law analysis.
               | In most cases a court will readily accept a choice-of-law
               | provision and apply it as the parties intended. But
               | that's not necessarily so in the case of a noncompete
               | agreement.
               | 
               | > Like other common law doctrines, conflict-of-law rules
               | vary from state to state. Most states will not enforce a
               | choice-of-law provision that would violate the public
               | policy of a state with a "materially greater interest" in
               | the dispute or where the parties do not have a
               | "substantial relationship" with the chosen state. In
               | other words, a California employer cannot get around
               | California's prohibition against employee restrictive
               | covenants by requiring his California employee to sign an
               | agreement that includes a Nevada choice-of-law clause.
               | 
               | https://www.bonalaw.com/insights/legal-resources/is-my-
               | out-o...
               | 
               | So yes, employment law in state X usually does bind a
               | company headquartered in state X even if the employee is
               | working in a completely different state. Doesn't matter
               | where you live, you are employed by an entity in state X.
               | 
               | (or rather, it _does_ matter, you still have to pay taxes
               | in state Y and state Y also gets to pass rules of its own
               | governing work in that state... practically speaking what
               | you get is the union of the two sets of rules, you get
               | the combination of both. In the event of a full-on
               | "state X requires A, state Y forbids it"... then the
               | lawyers get paid.)
        
               | hef19898 wrote:
               | If you do that only for jobs in Washington state it is
               | only a question of time until the first discrimibation
               | law suites are filed. Plus it is easy good press.
        
               | DannyBee wrote:
               | and then the law would get struck down because, as said,
               | washington state isn't allowed to regulate interstate
               | commerce.
        
               | bmelton wrote:
               | Nit to pick: States can and do regulate interstate
               | commerce all the time. California once banned the import
               | of foie gras into the state, and IIRC are planning a law
               | banning the import of foreign oil. Some states ban the
               | import of firearms they don't wish to exist.
               | 
               | Whether they should be allowed to engage in the
               | regulation of interstate commerce for activities that
               | occur entirely extra-state is probably more along what
               | you intended, but even that you could probably find
               | allowed or as-yet-indeterminate exceptions to.
        
               | DannyBee wrote:
               | Yes, that is fair.
               | 
               | They can even regulate interstate commerce in ways that
               | discriminate between in and out of state companies (IE
               | something that seems a very clear commerce clause
               | violation), though this is historically limited mostly to
               | alcohol shipment :)
               | 
               | Honestly, though, the current SC seems much more likely
               | to strike that all down than they have in the past, and
               | give much brighter lines.
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > California once banned the import of foie gras into the
               | state
               | 
               | No, it banned sale of foie gras _entirely_ (it did not
               | single out importation), and even so the ban, to the
               | extent that it prohibited individual consumers from
               | buying it for import from out-of-state vendors, was
               | struck down by a federal trial court in 2020 as a
               | violation of the dormant commerce clause, a decision this
               | year upheld by the Ninth Circuit, so it 's probably not a
               | law you want to point to as an example of the state being
               | free to regulate interstate commerce.
               | 
               | https://www.theguardian.com/us-
               | news/2022/may/07/california-f...
               | 
               | > and IIRC are planning a law banning the import of
               | foreign oil.
               | 
               | Even if it was true that someone in California was
               | planning on trying to pass such a law, it would be an
               | even more clear, bright-line dormant commerce clause
               | violation than the _foie gras_ law.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _States can and do regulate interstate commerce all the
               | time. California once banned the import of foie gras into
               | the state, and IIRC are planning a law banning the import
               | of foreign oil._
               | 
               | This is fine. Sacramento can regulate what's coming into
               | California. It cannot set food labeling requirements for
               | Michigan.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > Sacramento can regulate what's coming into California.
               | 
               | It can regulated what is sold or produced in California,
               | but, because of the Commerce Clause, it's more limited in
               | regulating what comes in to California.
               | 
               | > It cannot set food labeling requirements for Michigan.
               | 
               | It absolutely can set food labelling requirements for
               | food commercially produced in California, except to the
               | extent such regulations are preempted by federal law,
               | whether or not it will later be shipped to Michigan.
        
               | connicpu wrote:
               | Washington has actually successfully enforced some of its
               | worker protection rules on a national scale in the past.
               | As a condition of having the harsh penalties for their
               | in-state violations dropped, they got fast food companies
               | to agree to drop non-compete agreements from all
               | franchise agreements nationwide[1]
               | 
               | Whether it happens as a direct consequence of the word of
               | the law feels less relevant than the fact they made it
               | happen in practice via a settlement.
               | 
               | [1]: https://table.skift.com/2018/07/12/some-fast-food-
               | chains-dro...
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > and then the law would get struck down because, as
               | said, washington state isn't allowed to regulate
               | interstate commerce.
               | 
               | It isn't allowed to discriminate against or unduly burden
               | interstate commerce; it can generally regulate the
               | behavior of Washington persons (including corporations)
               | in interstate commerce where such regulation does not
               | discriminate against such commerce (which is clearly the
               | case where the rule is identical to that for in-state
               | commerce of the same type.)
               | 
               | The exception would be if the federal government
               | preempted the kind of regulation Washington sought to
               | make by exercise of federal commerce powers.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _you do that only for jobs in Washington state it is
               | only a question of time until the first discrimibation
               | law suites are filed_
               | 
               | Discriminating based on an employee's state of residence
               | is totally fine. Californians get different disclosures
               | and rights compared with say Nevadans. Nevadans can't sue
               | for those benefits; they're not entitled to them.
        
               | willcipriano wrote:
               | I pretty sure if you headquartered your marijuana company
               | in a state where it's illegal you'd run into problems,
               | even if you didn't grow or sell it in that state.
        
               | oneoff786 wrote:
               | I don't think that's true?
        
               | willcipriano wrote:
               | "Conspiracy to commit drug trafficking" would probably
               | fit the bill. I think they could just call in the feds
               | because from the state and federal perspective you are
               | running a drug empire from that office.
        
               | zeroonetwothree wrote:
               | The feds don't seem very concerned with marijuana lately
        
               | fartcannon wrote:
               | That's hardly the point.
        
               | oneoff786 wrote:
               | But it's not trafficking if you don't move it across
               | state lines?
        
               | brewdad wrote:
               | But your state of domicile would happily seize your ill-
               | gotten gains the minute you try to bring the money home.
               | You may not be moving the drug across state lines but the
               | money certainly would.
        
               | oneoff786 wrote:
               | Pretty sure you're just making that up. That doesn't make
               | any sense. State laws don't declare something is illegal
               | anywhere. They declare they're illegal within that state.
               | It's perfectly fine to do such things in other states.
        
               | yieldcrv wrote:
               | Nah, state level would have no jurisdiction over the
               | criminal action and feds arent caring right now, but
               | focusing on the state level you can also just form a
               | branch
               | 
               | So you go online and fill out an LLC for another state,
               | and just say you are licensing your brand name to that
               | LLC in another state that is doing all the sales in that
               | state
        
               | willcipriano wrote:
               | "Your honor, this man, doing business as "weed.com",
               | collected the proceeds from four thousand individual
               | sales of marijuana from his office at 123 Fake Street."
               | 
               | It's illegal to do that. What's the defense, it's legal
               | to do that somewhere else?
               | 
               | That part of the justice system doesn't play around.
               | There are people in jail for felony murder for selling
               | the baggies to the guy who sold the drugs to the guy who
               | overdosed.
        
               | yieldcrv wrote:
               | It's legal to license a brand name to an organization in
               | another state
               | 
               | Thats the only action that occurred in the state
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | lanstein wrote:
               | I believe it is a WA corp.
        
               | dnissley wrote:
               | Just to take this a bit farther... if Washington state
               | can regulate Washington incorporated entities, can it
               | regulate them to act in a way that would violate laws in
               | other states?
        
               | malwarebytess wrote:
               | Here's an example.
               | 
               | California passes a law, and because doing business in
               | California is good for the bottom line they will comply
               | with the law, and in so doing set a new defacto national
               | standard. But, if this burden becomes too onerous, the
               | business can simply not do business with California or
               | move out of California. But, California is such a large
               | market it's quite a high burden to reach.
        
               | CountSessine wrote:
               | This isn't epwr's claim. His claim is that Washington has
               | written and passed a law that binds Microsoft's
               | operations outside Washington state, which I'm pretty
               | sure would violate the commerce clause.
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > His claim is that Washington has written and passed a
               | law that binds Microsoft's operations outside Washington
               | state, which I'm pretty sure would violate the commerce
               | clause.
               | 
               | The commerce clause does not prevent states from having
               | laws which impact interstate commerce unless:
               | 
               | (1) They are preempted by federal exercise of commerce
               | clause powers (though that's really a _supremacy_ clause
               | issue), or
               | 
               | (2) they discriminate against or excessively burden
               | interstate commerce (the dormant commerce clause
               | doctrine).
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | zeroonetwothree wrote:
               | They cannot just like they can't regulate activities of
               | private individual when outside their state of residence.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | AdrianB1 wrote:
               | California does regulate private individuals that lived
               | in California in the past. It also does regulate private
               | individuals with residence in California and working in a
               | different state. Just saying.
        
               | decebalus1 wrote:
               | What are you even talking about?
               | 
               | > Microsoft was incorporated in the state of Washington
               | on June 25, 1981; reincorporated in the state of Delaware
               | on September 19, 1986; and reincorporated in the state of
               | Washington on September 22, 1993.
               | 
               | https://app.quotemedia.com/data/downloadFiling?webmasterI
               | d=9...
               | 
               | Washington (State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation)
        
       | nrclark wrote:
       | How do the Washington/Colorado salary disclosure laws interact
       | with bonus structures and stock grants? A staff engineer might
       | make $250k/year in base salary, but their total comp could be
       | much higher.
        
         | 0daystock wrote:
         | "250/year with bonus and equity options" is what I'd seen - not
         | very helpful.
        
           | llbeansandrice wrote:
           | These laws apply to all jobs, not just tech jobs.
        
       | billfruit wrote:
       | Why only in the US? Why not everywhere?
        
       | outside1234 wrote:
       | But will it include stock ranges too? This is where the huge
       | discrepancy occurs between candidates.
       | 
       | Salary is almost always in a tight range at Microsoft at a given
       | level -- but external candidates can get anywhere from peanuts (a
       | so called "tier 1" offer) to jumbo stock allocations (a so called
       | "tier 3" offer).
        
       | ramesh31 wrote:
       | Any tips for landing a MS interview?
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | avgDev wrote:
       | This is the way. We need more of this.
       | 
       | I'm at a point where if a recruiter messages me "about an
       | exciting opportunity" without any salary information, he/she will
       | not get a response.
       | 
       | While there are some jobs that maybe I would consider a pay cut
       | for, I generally want to make more money because that allows me
       | to invest more so I can be free one day.
        
         | wonderwonder wrote:
         | I get ~4 recruiter emails a day and I don't think I have ever
         | seen the salary in the initial job description. If the job
         | looks interesting I will just reply asking what the salary is.
         | Usually they immediately call me rather than respond via email
         | which is pretty annoying.
        
           | silicon2401 wrote:
           | This is why I stopped putting personal info in my resume. I
           | once had a particularly aggressive recruiter try and recruit
           | me for a contracting position (I only consider full time
           | roles), and when I repeatedly declined his offer, he actually
           | found my resume somewhere and just called my phone. Needless
           | to say it was incredibly annoying and ever since then I've
           | kept all contact info out of my resume.
        
             | r00fus wrote:
             | I put my Google Voice on my resume (and other places like
             | my .sig) and I generally just forward all GV calls to VM.
             | 
             | If they care to leave a message or send a text, I may read
             | it. If they don't then I ignore (unless I'm expecting a
             | call from that number in which case I'll call back in a day
             | or two).
             | 
             | Sometimes (like when we were looking for a nanny a few
             | years ago) I may let GV actually ring on my main line.
        
           | bluGill wrote:
           | Of course, they already know what they will get, it is a
           | fixed price. Anything they don't pay whoever they hire is
           | money they get to keep. (they can't hire a junior engineer to
           | a senior position - if the contract allowed that they would
           | though). I've seen cases where someone doesn't know their
           | value and thus accepts a very low offer.
        
           | avgDev wrote:
           | Pretty common sales tactic. They want you to invest as much
           | time as possible because generally the more time you invest
           | the more likely they are going to make a "sale".
           | 
           | I'm not sure if this even works for devs as there is so many
           | opportunities.
        
         | BlargMcLarg wrote:
         | The whole prudish / secretive attitude around salaries has got
         | to be one of the most annoying parts. Just get the formalities
         | over with instead of wasting time, please.
        
         | xtracto wrote:
         | I just reply to everyone with my expected salary, which is 30%
         | increase of my current salary. If they are not close to that
         | number, then it is better to not waste our time.
         | 
         | I've been in the employer position (as a hiring manager) and in
         | the Employee position. I know how much I am worth (or what I
         | _want_ to be worth), so I don 't really care about playing
         | games and haggling. I'ts ok, my value might become lower in a
         | recession, or when trying to get into new verticals. When that
         | happens, I'll adjust my expectations.
        
           | cfcfcf wrote:
           | Do you reveal your current salary? Or give a ballpark?
        
             | xtracto wrote:
             | I'll respond with a slightly different answer: In my
             | country, not only it is NOT illegal for a company to ask
             | you for your current salary. They can actually ask you to
             | provide a pay slip!!
             | 
             | So, I give CURRENT_SALARY*30% and tell them it's that.
        
         | itqwertz wrote:
         | If you do follow up and eventually ask for a salary range,
         | expect vague terms like "competitive" or "market rate".
        
           | 908B64B197 wrote:
           | The correct way to interpret this is "Silicon Valley
           | competitive/market rate".
           | 
           | The reaction you'll get is hilarious in some cases.
        
         | collegeburner wrote:
         | No not necessarily. Let me go over some scenarios:
         | 
         | Bob contributes 1. I contribute 1.25. Units don't matter, I
         | contribute 25% more.
         | 
         | It used to be maybe the salary band is $100k to $130k. Bob gets
         | $100k. I get $125k. My employer gets a total value of 2.25 for
         | $225k.
         | 
         | Now my employer has to disclose salaries and has 2 options:
         | 
         | 1) Don't make out salaries the same, Bob quits, now the
         | employer has only 1.25 when they need 2.25 and have to go re-
         | hire ($50k or more in a lot of times).
         | 
         | 2) Make our salaries the same, so now Bob also gets $125k and
         | employer pays $250k for 2.25. This is what will happen in the
         | short term and what attracts people, but in the long term what
         | will happen is
         | 
         | 3) Make our salaries the same but slow raises so gradually they
         | go to the inflation indexed amount of about the average, so
         | $112.5k more or less. Now employer still pays $225k for 2.25.
         | But now I am subsidizing Bob the less productive worker for
         | $12.5k every year.
         | 
         | A lot like unions, making things more uniform often comes at
         | some expense to the top performers. I always sit near that top
         | so I say no this is stupid and I hate it. I don't give a shit
         | what Bob is paid and I give even less if it costs me money for
         | him to get more.
        
       | marlowe221 wrote:
       | If your job posting doesn't give some indication as to the
       | possible salary range, I'm just not going to apply.
       | 
       | What? I'm going to go through some bullshit interview process
       | that includes some esoteric algorithm problem that has nothing to
       | do with the actual position in question and, even if it did, I
       | could "npm install"/google my way out of only to find out later
       | on that the job pays the same (or less) than what I make right
       | now?
       | 
       | That's just a waste of everyone's time.
        
       | dubcanada wrote:
       | There are a ton of people here who probably make 6 figures
       | complaining about pay ranges in job postings.
       | 
       | I am not sure I fully see how this is a problem, any minimum wage
       | job says pay range (or a specific rate), any job for dish washers
       | or line cooks say $18 a hour or what not, a tech job with a six
       | figure salary should at least say a range, since it varies based
       | on skill and department.
       | 
       | I haven't read a single response that I agree with as to why this
       | is a negative? Can someone provide some insight in to why people
       | seem to be against this? Also the silly comments about well $5 to
       | $5 million is a range are just silly. They are going to provide a
       | range like $42k to $55k. Because it is based on skill to some
       | degree (7 years in the industry should pay more you more than 2).
        
         | kansface wrote:
         | > I haven't read a single response that I agree with as to why
         | this is a negative? ...They are going to provide a range like
         | $42k to $55k
         | 
         | Why? Its like prop 65 cancer warnings being on 100% of the
         | products and buildings in CA. Its just a thing you do so as to
         | avoid liability. Now, we have these useless warnings pasted
         | everywhere that have no meaning beyond compliance. Is CA better
         | off with these warnings? I can't imagine so. Will companies
         | post very broad salary ranges? With certainty, whats the
         | downside? Will the ranges correspond to reality? Probably not.
         | Are we better off forcing companies to do this? I'm not sure.
        
           | Broken_Hippo wrote:
           | I'm sorry, I don't see how this is the same. Will you explain
           | why you think they are similar?
        
             | kansface wrote:
             | What is the incentive for companies to put down
             | meaningful/useful information? If that incentive exists,
             | why weren't they doing it before the law was enacted?
             | Alternatively, they weren't doing it before, so a priori
             | I'd wager that the opposite incentive exists (to hide
             | information from candidates). This law isn't changing
             | incentives so behavior won't change beyond nominal
             | compliance with the law.
        
         | twblalock wrote:
         | At some point as a high achiever you end up worrying about the
         | ceiling rather than the floor.
         | 
         | For example, let's say a software job is listed with a range of
         | $200k to $250k comp. And you want more than that. But will the
         | employer be willing, or allowed, to negotiate with you an
         | amount over $250k? After all, the job posting says $250k is the
         | top of the range. Maybe it would be illegal to pay you more!
         | But at a company that does not list salary ranges, maybe there
         | is more wiggle room.
         | 
         | Transparency is good for people who are average at their jobs
         | and get average pay. For other people, the benefits are
         | unclear.
        
           | disiplus wrote:
           | i don't think the salary has to be in the range, its just
           | that the range is based on current salaries.
        
         | BlargMcLarg wrote:
         | At the very least, MS is probably just "collateral damage" of a
         | law which could help low earners gain more transparency. If
         | you're already working at MS or any big tech, odds are you
         | aren't part of the target audience. Doubly so since information
         | from big corps is pretty readily shared and available already.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | jorblumesea wrote:
       | Are they going to take a look a TC? Their "highest we can go
       | offer" was 100k below everyone else in my region (seattle)
        
       | galkk wrote:
       | Is it going to be salary or total comp?
        
       | xtat wrote:
       | Read this as "our initial offer"
        
       | potamic wrote:
       | I wonder why only the US. If they believe pay transparency is the
       | right way forward, they should do it globally. Surely there's no
       | legal hurdles in posting pay ranges for any country.
        
         | troon-lover wrote:
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | For the US it may be this is the easiest way to comply with
         | Colorado's law. Worldwide may be rolled out later, but those
         | are probably separate business entities that have to work it
         | out.
         | 
         | As with all negotiations, once you've stated a number you've
         | put a lower (or upper, depending on the side you're on) bound.
        
           | llbeansandrice wrote:
           | I believe WA has a similar law going into effect. Since
           | they're based/domiciled(?) in WA the state laws apply I
           | believe. They're not doing it out of the goodness of their
           | hearts.
        
         | mobiuscog wrote:
         | They don't believe pay transparency is the way forward -
         | they're just fending off some US laws and trying to gain kudos
         | for doing so.
         | 
         | As you mention, if they really wanted to be transparent, it
         | would be global, but I doubt they want to expose those
         | differences.
        
       | mywittyname wrote:
       | Does anyone know if popular job platforms out there use your
       | location to determine whether or not to show the salary
       | information for a job posting? Or is it usually something that
       | have to request once you can establish that you're a resident of
       | Colorado?
        
         | llbeansandrice wrote:
         | Colorado's law is written so that it would apply to any job
         | that can reasonably be done by someone residing in the state.
         | So if you're hiring for a remote position, under CO law you
         | have to provide a salary range. It doesn't technically matter
         | where _you_ are located.
         | 
         | As a result, some companies have started explicitly excluding
         | CO from their job postings. I'm not a lawyer, but I think
         | there's probably latent lawsuits there. Especially if they
         | employ anyone in CO already.
        
       | another_poster wrote:
       | Individual states' pay transparency laws are already applying
       | upwards pressure on salaries across the country.
       | 
       | My company has multiple groups in different states including
       | Colorado, and in anticipation of needing to post salary ranges
       | for our open positions in Colorado, my group (with no positions
       | in Colorado) preemptively bumped up everyone's salaries to the
       | midpoint of their pay bands to avoid anyone becoming frustrated
       | if they learned they were in the bottom half. Despite the
       | preemptive adjustments, a colleague of mine became angry and quit
       | when they found out their salary wasn't at the very top of their
       | position's pay range.
       | 
       | So pay transparency laws are having a big impact--not only in the
       | obvious cases of candidates negotiating salaries in the states
       | that passed the pay transparency laws, but also for average
       | employees in other states who didn't even need to do anything
       | except learn how much their labor was worth.
        
         | zdragnar wrote:
         | I think your example might be more of an exception than a rule;
         | the last company I was in that introduced pay bands only bumped
         | up people who were below the bottom of the band.
         | 
         | The only people who were upset were those who found out some
         | people were way over the new pay band and generated a bit of
         | gossip over how those people were way overpaid for the quality
         | of their work
        
         | kodah wrote:
         | I'm leaving my company because it took so much "upwards
         | pressure" to make this happen. Literally hundreds of people
         | screaming in a townhall that the companies wages were so low
         | that housing was eating up most of their paycheck while
         | mandating a return to work from the top. This is in the Bay
         | Area. I do think there's something to be said about a company
         | that does not tend to the needs of its flock proactively.
        
           | anon291 wrote:
           | Why not just leave the company? I understand in many
           | industries jobs are hard to find, but tech jobs are a dime a
           | dozen.
        
             | lostlogin wrote:
             | > Why not just leave the company?
             | 
             | The first words were "I'm leaving my company". Am I missing
             | something?
        
           | jzawodn wrote:
           | I see what you did there.
        
           | drewcon wrote:
           | I'm not sure why the company is responsible at an individual
           | level for what's going on in the Bay Area. They can't tell
           | you how to manage and interact with the expenses of your
           | life.
           | 
           | If you're mad at anyone, walk down to city hall and tell them
           | to build more housing.
        
             | chrsig wrote:
             | Because the company chooses to have a policy that mandates
             | employees live within a viable commute radius of an office
             | located in the city. I don't know why companies can't just
             | take responsibility for their decisions.
             | 
             | Or the company can walk down to city hall and tell them to
             | build more housing, because they're unable or unwilling to
             | pay enough for people to live in a viable radius.
             | 
             | Or the company can relocate or establish a satellite office
             | in a lower cost of living area.
             | 
             | Or the company can pay people commensurately with the cost
             | of living in the area.
             | 
             | Or the company can deal with the inevitable attrition of
             | their workforce as it happens, all the while denying that
             | they have any agency and deflect blame onto individuals.
        
               | RexM wrote:
               | The last one seems to be the most popular choice.
        
             | fugalfervor wrote:
             | If the people in the company want to be good (and they
             | should, because being good makes you happy), they will
             | ensure the financial success of their workers. If the
             | people in the company want to be bad (and they shouldn't,
             | because being bad makes you unhappy), then they will
             | callously disregard the needs of their workers, and say
             | it's someone else's fault.
        
             | cogman10 wrote:
             | You say this as if companies don't chose where to have
             | their offices and their attendance policies.
             | 
             | If a company places it's headquarters in a HCOL area and
             | requires everyone come in 5 days a week, then yes, they
             | have a responsibility to pay a salary high enough that
             | their employees can survive there.
             | 
             | If employers don't like the fact that COL is too high, THEY
             | can go ahead and march on city hall to advocate for
             | political action. Companies have a MUCH larger sway with
             | local politicians than the average employee does. That, or
             | they can increase the salary or change the attendance
             | policies.
        
               | WalterBright wrote:
               | > they have a responsibility to pay a salary high enough
               | 
               | No, they don't. The employee gets to decide if the salary
               | is high enough to meet his needs. If it isn't, the
               | employee can negotiate for more, or go elsewhere.
               | 
               | Nobody is obliged to work for a company they find
               | unacceptable.
        
               | throw10920 wrote:
               | This is correct. The most "obligation" that an employer
               | _might_ have is to pay the employee for the _value_ of
               | their work, and even that 's dubious. (show me the source
               | for your moral argument) They certainly have no
               | obligation to match CoL.
               | 
               | If an employer doesn't pay their employees enough, those
               | employees should leave, their employer will eventually
               | die, and that'll add another data point to tell the
               | shareholders to either elect CEOs that will pay more or
               | to stop backing companies in high-CoL areas.
        
               | kriops wrote:
               | Supply and demand. COL is a downstream price signal as
               | far as a rational employer is concerned. While they might
               | try to influence it to alter the supply of potential
               | workers in their favor, it is by no means their
               | responsibility to do so.
               | 
               | And saying companies choose where the highest
               | concentration of available talent resides is dishonest.
        
               | cogman10 wrote:
               | > Supply and demand.
               | 
               | Yup, there's a low supply of employees and a high demand
               | for them. So guess what the absolute dumbest thing is an
               | employer can do when employees start clamoring for COL
               | adjustments?
        
               | connicpu wrote:
               | They don't have a responsibility to do so, but they
               | shouldn't be surprised when employees are angry at them
               | if they don't do one or the other
        
               | jonas21 wrote:
               | Companies may have more sway than an individual employee,
               | but that sway is still close to zero. Why? Because
               | everyone knows that once enough key employees live
               | nearby, they can't just pick up and move the company
               | somewhere else.
               | 
               | Google, for example, has been trying for over a decade to
               | build some medium-density housing near its campus. This
               | goes beyond just advocating for political action (which
               | they're also doing) -- they're actually offering to
               | finance the project and assume all risk -- all the city
               | has to do is stop saying no.
               | 
               | But every time it comes up for approval, local residents
               | show up to complain, and the city council finds some
               | arbitrary reason to say no.
        
               | cogman10 wrote:
               | Google still has options (which, granted, they've
               | exercised) including adding more remote offices.
               | 
               | They don't want to do that because they've already spent
               | a bunch of money on their fancy HQ and don't want to see
               | it empty out.
               | 
               | There are plenty of employers with < 1000 employees,
               | however, crowding these downtown areas. They have way
               | more flexibility in being able to move out of these city
               | centers and into more affordable locations for everyone.
               | They don't because part of the reason for their offices
               | in these downtown location is rich people showing off to
               | other rich people. You gotta "look" successful.
        
               | aerosmile wrote:
               | > They don't because part of the reason for their offices
               | in these downtown location is rich people showing off to
               | other rich people. You gotta "look" successful.
               | 
               | If an office is moved to a less densely populated area,
               | the average commute time of all employees collectively
               | ends up increasing.
               | 
               | The way rich people actually show off to other rich
               | people is by doing what's right for their companies,
               | thereby increasing the value of their equity - which then
               | allows them to buy luxury goods and impress other rich
               | people that way.
        
               | phpisthebest wrote:
               | >>Because everyone knows that once enough key employees
               | live nearby
               | 
               | It is almost like, in any context, centralization is bad.
               | I am not sure why we has a civilization have to keep
               | learning this lesson, over and over and over again
               | 
               | Anytime you centralize anything it results in bad
               | outcomes.
               | 
               | Diversity, Diversification, Distributed Models, etc are
               | ALWAYS preferable, I dont care if you are talking about
               | Stocks, People, Housing, Power, Government, you name,
               | Consolidation and centralization is always bad
        
               | shrimp_emoji wrote:
               | Centralization is just a tool (if methods of organization
               | are tools).
               | 
               | Sometimes, it's clearly the right choice (where are
               | program settings settings? `~/.config`).
               | 
               | It's also VERY simple. If all you want is client/server
               | version control, and you don't mind the constraints,
               | SVN's UX and learning curve beats git's by a long shot.
               | 
               | Decentralization buys you flexibility, but entails tons
               | of complexity.
        
               | phpisthebest wrote:
               | your case to prove centralization is sometimes good is
               | SVN over git
               | 
               | I can not envision any scenario in which I would choose
               | SVN over git
        
               | closeparen wrote:
               | Decentralization of people and housing == suburban
               | sprawl, car dependency, tens of thousands of fatal
               | collisions, the climate crisis, etc. Decentralization
               | shifts the difficulty into communication/coordination,
               | which is sometimes more tractable but also sometimes not.
        
               | donthellbanme wrote:
        
             | pnemonic wrote:
             | Companies are responsible at an individual level for
             | understanding the state of the environment they chose to do
             | business in. You seem to be implying that people in the Bay
             | Area are just bad with money and if they weren't, this
             | wouldn't be a problem.
             | 
             | Some day soon, hopefully, companies that fail to do this
             | will fail to stay in business.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | vkou wrote:
             | > I'm not sure why the company is responsible at an
             | individual level for what's going on in the Bay Area.
             | 
             | No, but it's responsible for not paying well, while
             | mandating that everyone working for it must live in the
             | most expensive region in the country.
             | 
             | > If you're mad at anyone, walk down to city hall and tell
             | them to build more housing.
             | 
             | Or walk across the street to a competitor. It is the Bay
             | area, after all.
        
             | kelseyfrog wrote:
             | Why artificially constrain the action landscape? In the
             | realpolitik world of getting desirable outcomes, if forcing
             | companies gets the results, then it gets the results.
        
             | anigbrowl wrote:
             | It isn't. Nor should the company expect people to keep
             | showing up if they are not being paid enough to live in the
             | area where their offices are.
             | 
             | This is just suppliers (of labor) advising that their costs
             | are going up, and thus so is the price of their economic
             | input. It's just business.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | alistairSH wrote:
             | _They can't tell you how to manage and interact with the
             | expenses of your life._
             | 
             | No, but they can move to a lower cost area, allow WFH, or
             | _gasp_ pay a fair wage for the region. Employers don 't
             | have a right to cheap labor
        
               | sneak wrote:
               | It's the employee's job to remind an employer that they
               | don't have the right to cheap labor by leaving. The
               | market is two-sided.
        
         | TulliusCicero wrote:
         | > my group (with no positions in Colorado) preemptively bumped
         | up everyone's salaries to the midpoint of their pay bands
         | 
         | Uhh, surely I'm not the only one seeing the obvious flaw here,
         | right? Is the inevitable outcome here that pay bands will now
         | cover a range where nobody is _actually_ in the lower half,
         | ever? That lower half of the range will just be there as a sort
         | of psychological buffer?
        
           | marricks wrote:
           | So the pay bands go up. Everyone gets paid more, board salary
           | go down a bit, and things hopefully become a bit more event.
           | Sounds good? Things have been going the other direction far
           | too long.
        
             | TulliusCicero wrote:
             | > So the pay bands go up.
             | 
             | They can't, though; if you do that, now there are people in
             | the bottom half, and they're upset that they're 'below
             | average'.
             | 
             | You basically need a vanity range for pay.
        
               | sangnoir wrote:
               | It's not a vanity range if it's leading to real-life
               | salary adjustments.
        
               | TulliusCicero wrote:
               | Vanity clothing sizing leads to real life changes in
               | clothes measurements too.
        
             | shmatt wrote:
             | More like: Pay bands go up. Company cuts 15% of workforce
             | "to achieve better numbers"
             | 
             | Every time you read that headline, the company could have
             | just cut pay by 15% and gotten the same profitability.
             | Higher pay will force medium-small companies to hire less
             | people
             | 
             | Some SV companies make Billions in profits per quarter.
             | Some don't. I've seen far too many employees try to justify
             | why they should be making Meta compensation elsewhere. It
             | doesn't and shouldn't work that way
        
             | jeremyjh wrote:
             | How does that follow? They will just lower the bottom of
             | the pay bands, and now people who in the bottom third are
             | at the midpoint without another dollar being spent.
        
               | eropple wrote:
               | And then, because law is not code and being technically
               | correct is frequently not the best kind of correct, the
               | question becomes "OK, are there actually any employees at
               | that point in the pay band?" and folks start tugging
               | their collars and going "well..." until that activity
               | becomes disallowed, either via judicial interpretation or
               | legislative amendment.
        
             | throwaway09223 wrote:
             | Board retainers aren't significant expense anywhere as far
             | as I'm aware. Often their stipends are less than an
             | employee's pay.
             | 
             | For example, Google's board stipend is $100k, which is
             | about half the median total comp of an average employee
             | (less, counting benefits). Walmart I think pays their board
             | $60k.
             | 
             | You may be thinking of executive comp, but even then it is
             | generally not significant amount. You could completely
             | eliminate and redistribute executive compensation at Wal-
             | Mart and it wouldn't really make a measurable difference in
             | employee hourly salaries.
        
               | showerst wrote:
               | Walmart is a bad comparison there; they have an enormous
               | headcount of low-paid staff. Many tech companies are far
               | lower headcount, but with high executive pay.
               | 
               | Looking at some other companies, Activision-Blizzard's
               | CEO alone makes enough to pay every employee a $15,000
               | bonus. Reed Hastings at Netflix makes enough to pay every
               | employee $3800. And that's not counting any of the rest
               | of the executive staff, or all the other ways money flows
               | out of a company to non-employees, like dividends and
               | stock buybacks.
               | 
               | https://www.equilar.com/reports/83-equilar-associated-
               | press-...
               | 
               | I think there's certainly a lot of room for wages to go
               | up, though i'm skeptical that it will come at the expense
               | of things like executive pay or share buybacks.
        
               | TulliusCicero wrote:
               | The comment referred to specifically said "board
               | salaries", not executive pay more broadly.
        
               | throwaway09223 wrote:
               | Activision-Blizzard's board get 350k. If they earned $0
               | instead, this would only give each employee an extra $35
               | per year. That's including their stock compensation.
               | 
               | As you say, most goes to investors. Which makes sense as
               | they actually own the company.
        
               | jeromegv wrote:
               | OP was talking about executives (CEO, VPs), not board.
        
               | throwaway09223 wrote:
               | I am OP's OP and I was talking about the board.
        
               | TulliusCicero wrote:
               | > board salary go down a bit
        
               | vlovich123 wrote:
               | That's not accurate. The board meets maybe 4 times a
               | year. Let's be generous and say they work one full
               | calendar month of the year. That means their pro-rated
               | stipend is actually 1.2 M/year. Google employees who only
               | choose to work one month of the year can do so, but the
               | median salary would be 16k dollars. AFAIK board members
               | don't put in a month's worth of work so that 1.2 M/year
               | is an underestimate. They also can sit on multiple boards
               | simultaneously whereas moonlighting in multiple companies
               | is not generally possible in the same way.
        
               | TulliusCicero wrote:
               | The pro-rated version is irrelevant, since the comment
               | was talking about board salaries going down in order to
               | fund higher salaries elsewhere.
        
               | throwaway09223 wrote:
               | We're discussing whether redistributing the board
               | stipends would change individual salaries and the clear
               | answer is it will not, even in the most extreme
               | situations.
               | 
               | But, to your point regarding prorated comp: I've been a
               | salaried employee at a company like Google. I've also
               | been a board member.
               | 
               | First, like many senior tech employees my total comp
               | market rate is in the seven figures. A pro-rated 1.2M
               | stipend would be appropriate to compensate me for my
               | time. The average board retainer for less profitable
               | companies is closer to $30k/yr. These are not entry level
               | positions and the retainers are shockingly low in the
               | vast majority of cases. (In my case, I'm on the board of
               | a non-profit and I actually pay them)
               | 
               | Second, I think you are underestimating how little some
               | salaried workers actually work. I think if you try you
               | can find more than a few Google employees who only work
               | one month a year ;) Conversely: I work far harder in my
               | role as a board member than I used to in my salaried
               | role. It's different for everyone of course, but I assure
               | you no one is seeking out board seat retainers as a way
               | to get rich. It's just not worth it.
        
             | lmkg wrote:
             | I read somewhere that this is exactly what happened when
             | (publicly-traded?) companies were required to publicize
             | executive compensation. And it's a major reason why exec
             | salaries have increased while regular salaries have not
             | over the past few decades.
             | 
             | So... seems fair to me. Maybe salaries will actually
             | increase enough that people won't have to switch jobs every
             | three years to get a raise.
        
           | bombcar wrote:
           | That's very common in anything that has a range. The pay
           | bands will shift to compensate for it.
        
           | collegeburner wrote:
           | We all now work at Lake Wobegon. Which means salaries will be
           | set to average value of the position and lazy people will be
           | subsidized by hard workers and better contributors. Not
           | everybody contributes the same value.
        
         | itronitron wrote:
         | >> quit when they found out their salary wasn't at the very top
         | 
         | Such an elegant implementation of the 'no assholes' policy.
        
         | foobiekr wrote:
         | The noncompete thing is actually a much, much bigger deal than
         | the pay transparency thing. I have a friend who is waiting out
         | a 2Y noncompete that he foolishly agreed to in Texas.
        
           | social_quotient wrote:
           | It's a right to work state, so maybe there is more to it than
           | a vanilla NC?
        
             | lthornberry wrote:
             | I don't know anything about Texas non-compete law, but
             | "right to work state" refers to restrictions on unionizing.
             | It has nothing to do with non-compete clauses.
        
       | mkl95 wrote:
       | I wish all companies included pay ranges. When I was a junior /
       | mid level dev I was lowballed more times than I care to admit.
       | Nowadays if some recruiter messages me I ask for the range
       | immediately, and I end the conversation if I don't get a straight
       | answer.
        
       | DisjointedHunt wrote:
       | $100k - $5 Million is a valid range
        
         | mywittyname wrote:
         | Pay bands are the minimum and maximum that employees at a
         | specific level are paid. So this only works if a company is
         | legitimately going to hire people for $5MM a year and/or have
         | existing employees at that level paid that amount.
         | 
         | Also, such large pay bands will raise eyebrows, as they are
         | indicative of discrimination. Why such wildly different wages
         | for the same role?
        
           | zeroonetwothree wrote:
           | Because humans aren't interchangeable cogs?
           | 
           | Let's consider the range of compensation for the "CEO" role.
        
             | llbeansandrice wrote:
             | These laws are not intended to help CEOs or people in tech
             | already making 6-figure salaries before other compensation.
             | 
             | These ludicrous edge cases are not a "gotcha" for a type of
             | law that greatly helps pay transparency for the vast
             | majority of the population.
             | 
             | Even in tech this is helpful. What's the going rate for a
             | new-grad SWE in Nashville TN? I certainly didn't know when
             | I graduated. I had to get all the way to the offer stage
             | before any numbers were discussed at all. Also no equity
             | was involved anyway.
        
       | killjoywashere wrote:
       | This will work for a while, but have a look at how this has
       | played out in other situations: 1) college tuition cost of
       | attendance calculators (shit goes up every year), 2) federal pay
       | scales (completely immobile), 3) healthcare standard charges
       | mandate. This will eventually become oppressive as the powerful
       | learn to communicate with this new node in the network.
       | 
       | edit: not sure why the downvotes. Making information public
       | increases market efficiencies, but market efficiencies don't
       | always transfer to the workers. See: the last 30 years.
        
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