“It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.”

Whenever I bring up the topic of salary range transparency with job seekers and employers in Singapore, half of the time I’d get the same response: salary ranges in job ads won’t work.

It seems as if salary is the anti-hero in this narrative, the problematic one “fostering conflicts”, and should be avoided at all costs.

But why is that so? 

It’s common practice that recruiters ask for salary expectations before putting the applicant through to the interview rounds. 

If you are asking above their budget, the likelihood is that you’d get rejected or ghosted. Some might even choose to underbid themselves. 

As a job seeker, why are we not expecting that salary information upfront to skip these awkward situations?

Instead, we frown upon this idea.

“The salary range numbers are so wide that it does not make sense”

Skepticism around salary ranges probably came up the most often from my conversations with job seekers, and it’s not unique to Singapore. 

Gothamist reported on companies providing overly broad salary ranges in their job postings to circumvent New York City’s newly-instated pay transparency requirements last November. 

Citigroup, for instance, advertised for a job opening that it’s willing to pay between $0 and $2 million for. They later attributed that to a glitch and revised it to between $59,340 and $149,320. Maybe it makes a difference, I’m not sure. 

But such a practice can suggest one or two things about a potential employer’s honesty and integrity.

Job seekers end up distrusting the numbers and the company.  

On the other hand, candidates fall into two camps: those who “know their worth” and those who don’t. 

Salary ranges serve as an indicator of what a company is willing to pay for a particular role. 

But the other side of the coin is job seekers have to educate themselves on their market value to make sense of this information and create a win-win situation. 

Monster’s Chief Human Capital Officer Claire Barnes commented “While some candidates may wish the salary numbers were less broad and more specific, these ranges offer a springboard for negotiation, give people more leverage to advocate for themselves and enable job seekers to make more informed decisions on whether to apply for jobs.”

Job seekers get to benefit the most when armed with both salary range transparency as a benchmark and an awareness of their own worth. Early on at the point of application, and later on the negotiation table. 

“I don’t want to be seen as materialistic” 

Salary is easily one of the key considerations for employees to switch jobs. 

LinkedIn revealed that compensation and benefits is the top priority for candidates in Southeast Asia today, aligning with many similar studies.  

People work for money, and “there’s no shame in that”, said career coach and author Eleanor Tweddell. Most of us need to earn a living, pay bills and sustain our lifestyles.

But of course that’s not something you should say in an interview, or you’d probably be penalized, because employers don’t want people who just work for money. 

Ironically, in job applications and recruiters’ calls, there’s always a pre-qualification question “what’s your expected salary”, and worse, “what are you currently drawing”.

What is the prospective employer going to do with this information? Turn down an application?

Would it not be better for the job seeker to make their own decision from a job ad with pay information?

Some would argue pay bands will deter job seekers from applying for a role. But studies have shown otherwise.

Companies with pay ranges in their job advertisements have found an increase in applicant quantity and quality, proving naysayers wrong. 

Being straightforward and upfront has other benefits too. 

With the compensation question out of the way, candidates and hiring managers go into the interview with the right expectations rather than dance around the elephant in the room.

They can have better conversations around the actual role and responsibilities, and dive into the actual elements that make them a good fit, beyond the salary aspect.

While U.C. Berkeley professor Barry Schwartz disagreed with the notion that people work for pay, he suggested “it could become true if you create workplaces that essentially deprive people of any other satisfaction that might come from work…. You create a workplace where people show up only if they’re getting paid, and then you claim, ‘You see, I told you, the only reason people work is to get paid.’”

You can’t put the blame on salary range transparency if companies treat employees as if they are motivated solely by a paycheck.

“But disclosing salary ranges will upset current employees” 

This is an argument I come across often from proponents of salary secrecy in job openings.

Employees find out they are paid differently from their peers and it’d have a negative impact on the overall morale and productivity.

But why would such a situation happen?

It very likely boils down to an inherent issue with the company’s existing compensation philosophy.

While Dr. Tomasz Obloj, professor of strategy at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, disagreed with the productivity loss in his research, he noted an important exception.

When pay transparency exposes inequity, that’s when “you realized that you’re working in an environment that is not fair” and productivity takes a hit. 

“The downsides come more from what the transparency reveals rather than from the pure fact of wages becoming or being transparent,” he said. 

What we should really question here is, how does the company decide what to pay its employees?

Problems usually arise when companies “don’t have a formalized compensation structure that can be explained and is free of bias,” according to David Turetsky, Salary.com’s vice president of consulting.

Employers have to develop sound and updated compensation policies around pay structures and how raises and promotions are earned. 

At the same time, they need to establish a communication approach and not evade talks about pay with their employees. 

Being transparent about pay structures and open to talk about pay can help employees understand the reasons behind any salary discrepancy and how they can do better.  

“It allowed us to start having really frank conversations with our staff,” said Pearlie Oni, head of people at Philo. “What it takes to make more money here, and what skills you need to acquire in order to be promoted.”

Rather than unhappy workers, employers can end up with more satisfied employees. 

Information is never the cause

So why are we still painting salary range transparency as the villain?

If anything, the transparency magnifies organizational flaws and makes the employer revisit the way they have been structuring pay for current and prospective employees. 

Publishing salary ranges in job openings provide job seekers better insights into the role and the company they are applying for. 

Salary information is already floating around for the longest time as people talk and share about their pay. The likes of Glassdoor, PayScale and salary benchmark reports we see every year show that people want this information. 

It’s about time for employers to share more accurate and transparent information with salary ranges in job ads.