Despite Lack of Clarity for What's Fair Pay in Today's Job Market, Employees Report They Are More Likely to Talk Pay With Best Friend Than Boss or Human Resources
-- Spouse / Significant Other: 66 percent -- Best Friend: 33 percent -- Boss: 25 percent -- Financial Advisor: 24 percent -- HR Representative: 18 percent -- Other Employees at Their Level: 15 percent -- Other Employees at a Higher Level: 6 percent -- Casual Acquaintance Outside Work: 5 percent -- Other Employees at a Lower Level: 4 percent -- Other Employees Who Report to Me Directly: 2 percentNot surprisingly, employees in the social media savvy generation (18-34) who are comfortable sharing information are more open to discussing compensation socially and professionally than older workers, aged 55 and older. For example, younger workers 18-34 are twice as likely to be comfortable sharing salary details with their best friend (42 percent) than with a human resources representative (20 percent) while less than one-third (31 percent) are comfortable discussing pay with their boss. On the other hand, more mature workers are less likely to discuss pay inside and outside of work. Of those 55+, one in four are comfortable sharing details with their best friend (25 percent) and boss (24 percent) while only 14 percent are comfortable discussing compensation details with HR. Younger men 18-34 exhibit the greatest comfort sharing pay details with casual acquaintances (11 percent) compared to just 2 percent of women aged 18-34 and 2 percent of men 55 and older. Some additional variations by income level, location and marital status are highlighted below. Of those comfortable sharing salary details with others:
-- Twice as many single/never married employees (49 percent) share compensation details with their best friend than married employees (23 percent). -- Employees in the West are twice as likely to share salary information with employees at the same level (22 percent) than those in the South (10 percent). By comparison 13 percent of those in the Northeast and 16 percent of those in the Midwest are comfortable sharing pay details with peers at work. -- It seems the less an employee makes, the less likely they are to discuss their pay: nearly one-third (31 percent) of those making $35,000 to $49,900 say they are not comfortable discussing their salary with anyone versus 10 percent of those making $50,000 to $74,900 and 8 percent of those making $75,000 or more.For more information about Glassdoor.com and to obtain current salary information for specific job titles at more than 70,000 companies, please visit www.glassdoor.com or the Company's blog www.glassdoor.com/blog.
(1) The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive® on behalf of Glassdoor.com from December 15-17, 2009 via the QuickQuery(SM) online omnibus service among 2,257 adults ages 18 and older of whom 1,356 were employed full time/part-time and/or self employed. Data were weighted using propensity score weighting to be representative of the total U.S. adult population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity, and propensity to be online. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. A full methodology and complete survey results are available.About Glassdoor.com Glassdoor.com is a career and workplace community where anyone can find and anonymously share real-time reviews, ratings and salary details about specific jobs or interviews for specific employers -- for free. Glassdoor enables employees, job seekers, employers and recruiters to simultaneously see -- for the first time -- unedited employee and job candidate opinions about a company's work environment along with details of pay, benefits, CEO approval ratings and job interview reviews. Glassdoor was founded in 2007 and launched its public beta in June 2008. Headquartered in Sausalito, Calif., Glassdoor was founded by Richard Barton, Robert Hohman and Tim Besse and has raised $9.5 million from its founders, Benchmark Capital and Sutter Hill Ventures.