The Chu Forums

An interesting take on discussing salaries. For the most part, people feel it's taboo. But this article shows some companies take the public approach and will list everyone's salary anyways.



How do you guys deal with people who don't really have a sense of the taboo and flat out ask you how much you make? do you tell them? skirt the subject? lie? Alicia's mom is super nosey so there have been times when alicia and i are talking about me possibly moving jobs for a higher pay, her mom flat out asks what i make and what i'm looking to make.

I only discuss how much i make with people i trust (hah, i don't tell alicia's mom what i make) and am sorta close to. It's not to protect anything, just because i think (some) people do look at you differently (not on purpose) when they know how much (or little) your salary is. People may pity you if you make less than what they think is a good pay, or they may resent you if you make more than them.

I also try to refrain from talking salaries with the older generation (my parents, etc) because they have a skewed sense of how much people make these days because back in their day, a starting wage was probably like 10-15k/yr, and they probably think that someone making 40k is making a ton. yea right, maybe it's a ton if you live in Prince George.

Not sure how you guys feel about the topic. I'm not saying that we should put emphasis on how much someone makes because at the end of the day, we all know what we make doesn't define anything about us, but in our North American capitalist society, it's hard to ignore earnings if it's out in the air.

I know for Nathan, since you're paid by your church, your salary is more or less public. Has this ever made for some awkward moments?

Basically, it's either, "Enough" or "Not enough" depending on my mood.

you mean you tell people you make enough or not enough depending on your mood? I guess that's one way of putting it w/o throwing a figure out lol

i am pretty comfortable with talking about salary, it's just a number. i work in a unionized environment so basically everyone has a relative idea of what range of salary a person makes since the pay scales are listed in our CBA.

people can judge you based on any number of things, to your actions, your words, your appearance, etc... if people pity or resent you, then the problem lies with that person. i'm not saying that i'm never jealous if I hear about a friend making loads of $$$ more than me, but I don't want to be jealous of it. the truth is the more i make a big deal about salary, the bigger of a deal it becomes to me. and that's sort of not how I want to live.

i think when it comes to asking someone for financial planning/advice, it helps a great deal for that person to know the details.

I always thought the chinese culture is a bit more candid about things like salary too.

I make 10k per year. Says so on my T4.

i'm calling up CRA!

Thinking about it, i actually think that it's not so much what others think about our salary, but it's what WE think about our salary. Everyone thinks that the more you make, the more important you are. And frankly, i don't think anyone on the planet thinks that they make "enough" (if that is even a definable term).

I think talking about salary (or lack of), isn't for the sake of others as much as it's for us.

My salary is public knowledge. It's awkward in that i know i make more than some parishoners. Technically they're my employer yet i make more than them. The fact that i don't pay tax ups my salary quite a bit too. But i don't care because i know no one else does, so it doesn't really bother me. Still,i don't talk about it because i know it bothers winnie haha.

then you make the least out of all of us, sucker.

oh wait.

how to become a registered pastor?

just spout out lines like "jesus loves you. amen"

i guess everyone is tax free now.