"Competitive" really means "market"<p>"Market" means "below market"<p>Thus "competitive" means "below market" :-)<p>Here are some reason's not to list salary:<p>(a) You're afraid of scaring off good people before they even hear your pitch.<p>(b) You aren't paying the rest of your team at true market and if they saw the ad they might ask for raises or get pissed and leave.<p>(c) You don't want to attract people who are in it for the money. (But it's OK for the company owners to be revenue driven of course.)<p>(d) You want to hire an "A" player who is more expensive than the "B" players you have and you don't want to explain it to your "B" players.<p>As they grow, companies tend to optimize for mediocrity - "We can't pay $X for someone really valuable because it would upset the (good but) less valuable team members."
Especially when "the first stage of our selection process is a 90 minute online coding test".<p>You expect me to do that when I know very little about the job and don't even know what I am going to be paid?
Defining your salary as "competitive" is worthless since everyone does it (although I saw a job description with "salary: decent" once :) ).<p>Clearly, being open about the salary gives you a big advantage, applicants know what they can expect and are more willing to spend time going through your interview process. When dealing with recruiters, I only answer their cold email if the salary is listed (among location, company name, tech stack).<p>One note of caution: if you advertise a range (e.g. 90k to 120k) you should have clear criteria in mind to decided what to offer in your range. As a candidate, I would want to understand why I'm offered 95k instead of 110k for example.
I take the term competitive as you will compete with the surrounding market for my particular skillset and what I bring to the table. Salary bands lead me to believe that you want to fit me into a box regardless of what I can do. For example, 115-125k for a job description asking for senior responsibilities means top talent at your org is at 125k. I would be naieve to think your internal employees never read your posted openings. So to save everyone feelings and make things "fair" you post a range. If you are looking for the best you should be willing to "bid to play" and post it as such.
Let's flip this around, suppose a lot of applicants started waiting until the end of the interview process to mention that they only expected to work 35 hours a week but made up for it by "being really fun to work with".<p>Do you think that hiring companies would start wishing that applicants would put that information right up front in their resume or cover letter?<p>How would a company interpret applicants coyness about revealing this bit of information (a) "Awe shucks you got us!" OR (b) "Hey, you tricked us and we assumed you meant 40 hours a week."
200% yes. I've got better things to do than go through the whole recruiting cycle only to find they're not going to pay what I'm willing to take -- especially when it's wayyyyy out of range. Happens more and more as I get older, as the term "senior engineer" has really gotten watered down since I started (I'd be like senior^3 I suppose). I've gotten to the point where I have to be really interested to go very far at all without having pinned down a range.
Showing sallaries saves everyone's time and money, some people want higher wages, others are willing to go for the same, just want to change.. Really depends.
I don't know that this survey really demonstrates anything interesting, but humans typically reciprocate demonstrations of trust, suggesting that greater transparency in hiring would create a virtuous cycle.
not me.<p>What i care about is where the office is located, whether there is anything to do in the area around the office, what technologies i will work with and whether i regard the company as ethical.<p>I once worked for a former white panther at half the salary i could have commanded anywhere ele.