How do you ask a co worker about their salary? Heard from one of our new hires that he asked for considerably more than what I started at, but I'm not sure if he was referring to his base salary or total value of compensation. It would boost my confidence considerably if I knew what I could be asking for. Hell even getting that as a starting would be quite a step up.

@jennytengsonM illegal? In North American countries it is mostly just taboo.

Tell him/her what you make and then just stand there awkwardly until he/she feels obligated to offer up that information voluntarily. 😆

@drac94 Sounds good, doesn't work.
Imposter syndrome totally ruins self-valuation.

@jennytengsonM Really? That seems like a pretty strange law.

You don't.

Some companies treat asking and/or exposing your/coleague's salary numbers as a violation of employment agreement. Do that 3 times and you are out.

First time I heard of this in some nordic-capital companies in here.

So.. Don't :) you'll feel better if you don't

@netikras I'll feel better knowing that I'm getting paid the same for the same work

It’s bullshit that talking about salary is taboo or even illegal as someone above mentioned (which is, no offence to your legal system, absolutely idiotic). I’m fairly close with a lot of my coworkers and we’ve talked about our salaries a few times now. Not talking about your compensation only benefits your employer, because it discourages you from asking for more money, more vacation, benefits, etc. If you realize someone similarly skilled is getting a better deal than you, you’ll be more likely to ask for something similar for yourself.

@beegC0de will you feel better if it turns out you're getting 2x less?

Will you be treating your coleagues equally if it turned out you are getting 2x more?

You might *think* you will...

Usually it's best discussed among close friends.
I have a total of 5 such folks all around the globe, and any change in their compensation is a reason for everyone to party, or bitch about life.

Steps:
1. Make friends,
2. Fail miserably,
3. Meet more people, finally open up and become good friends
4. Ask them their salary
5. Profit

@netikras only reason I'm not getting paid as much is because I didn't ask for more in negotiation, but I'm not going to make that mistake again.

@netikras for me it's not about making more or less than my co workers, it's that I'm not being valued at what I know I'm worth now (new hire accepted at substantially more than I am under the same circumstances). It's my own problem in the end.

I guess it is none of ur business.
If u were less confident when negiciating urs it is nobodies problem but u

@devapsarl well him and I have already discussed it a while ago (he started the conversation at a party) and I don't know if his base salary or total compensation was the figure he told me. Given the context I'm pretty sure it was the first, but I was so surprised at it that it was hard for me to believe. I agree that his or my salary is none of my or his business but it was on topic at the moment.

@beegC0de not true. It's not THEY who don't value you. It's YOU who didn't value you during negotiation and now suffers the consequences.

You've said it yourself. YOU didn't ask for more.

@netikras it was a good starting salary for my area and was already close to what I was going to ask so I just accepted it. Wasn't really sure how much more I could ask for but hindsight is always 20/20 so now I want to remedy it this year.

You go to a bar grab a beer and then when youre in a middle of ranting about office problems you can use the situation to ask them their salary. In one of my jobs it turned out that a backend guy who was there for 3 years was getting 10 percent less salary then I (junior frontend at the time) who joined weeks ago just because I negotiated better. So guess what happened, backend guy arranged a meeting and got a salary bump. Everybodys happy.

in my country, salary is classified as "personal information", meaning you are free to do with your own what you want, but it's illegal for anyone else to spread it. companies try to convince workers that it's illegal to tell even your own, or that it's a "breach of company policy", but making it such actually is illegal.

so i would just ask like normal: "if you don't mind telling me, what's your salary?"

and then it's their decision to tell me or not tell me, and i'll accept whatever they decide.