Posting your salary information on LinkedIn is a personal choice that comes with both potential benefits and risks. On the one hand, being open about your compensation can help give other professionals a better sense of their own market value and empower them to advocate for fair pay. However, oversharing sensitive financial details online also opens the door to identity theft and could jeopardize your current or future employment. There are no hard and fast rules about posting salaries online, so it’s wise to carefully weigh the pros and cons before deciding what’s right for your situation.
Why You Might Want to Post Your Salary
Here are some potential upsides to being transparent about your compensation on LinkedIn:
Helping Close the Pay Gap
Sharing salary data can help empower both women and minorities to negotiate fair compensation and close persistent pay gaps. When salaries are kept secret, pay discrimination tends to flourish. But when professionals talk openly about their compensation, patterns of inequity become harder to ignore both for employees and employers. Posting your salary can be one small way to chip away at pay injustices.
Informing Other Professionals
Your salary information might help other professionals in your field or region better understand the market rate for compensation. This is especially true for those just entering a career or new to a geographic area. If you’re comfortable doing so, being open about your pay can help colleagues benchmark and set expectations for their own salary negotiations.
Building Your Personal Brand
Disclosing your compensation can signal confidence and help build your personal brand. Posting a salary, especially one on the higher end of the pay scale, demonstrates that you are being well-compensated for your skills and experience. This can make you seem like an authority in your field and catch the eye of recruiters or hiring managers across your network.
Inspiring Connections
Being open about your pay can help forge connections with other professionals earning similar salaries. This can open the door to fruitful conversations about career growth and opportunities. Having a sense of others’ compensation in your field can also foster a spirit of transparency, collaboration and allyship.
Reasons You May Want to Keep Your Salary Private
However, there are also some risks associated with openly posting compensation details online:
Identity Theft
Disclosing your exact salary and job title on a public platform like LinkedIn can inadvertently provide criminals or scammers with key information used for identity verification. This could increase your vulnerability to having accounts or assets targeted for identity theft. Keeping some confidentiality around your income and employer can help minimize this risk.
Risk to Current Job
Some companies have policies that prohibit employees from openly discussing or disclosing compensation levels. Posting your exact salary online could be seen as a violation of your employment agreement. In some cases, this could potentially jeopardize your current job if your employer were to find out.
Harm Future Negotiation Power
Recruiters and hiring managers who know your previous salary have less incentive to offer you a competitive package. Having your compensation detailed publicly on the internet takes away future negotiation leverage and could limit your earning potential. Keeping some confidentiality around your pay allows you to better negotiate based on the value you bring, not past salaries.
Inadvertently Mislead Colleagues
Salary is not a full representation of overall compensation, which can include bonuses, equity, benefits and other perks. Posting a dollar amount could inadvertently mislead colleagues if your other compensation is not taken into account. And if circumstances change in the future, the posted salary will no longer be accurate.
Breed Resentment
Colleagues may make incorrect assumptions about your experience level or value to the company based solely on posted salary information. This could damage team morale and relationships if not handled sensitively. Salary is a nuanced issue, so publicly posting exact figures risks breeding unnecessary resentment.
Violate Company Policy
Some employers prohibit employees from disclosing their compensation, and posting it publicly could result in disciplinary action or termination if you violated a company policy. It’s wise to fully understand your employer’s rules regarding pay confidentiality before sharing your salary online.
Factors to Consider Before Posting
If you’re on the fence about posting your salary on LinkedIn, here are some additional factors to take into account:
Your Motivation
Think carefully about what’s motivating you to share your salary information. Is it to boost your ego, help others or make a statement? Understanding your incentive can help ensure you’re doing it for the right reasons.
Your Field and Location
The culture around pay transparency varies drastically across different industries, fields and geographic regions. Finance and tech tend to be more open, while law and academia typically keep compensation private. Be thoughtful about norms in your specific area.
Anonymity Options
You may be able to share general salary insights anonymously by scrubbing identifying details about your employer. This allows you to provide useful data to your network without sacrificing privacy.
Alternatives to Posting
Rather than posting your exact salary, you could share a salary range or general percentage increase. This provides some transparency without overexposing your finances.
Privacy Settings
You can control who sees your LinkedIn content. Setting posts about your pay to be visible only to direct connections or offline entirely gives you some confidentiality.
Best Practices If You Do Post
If after careful consideration you decide to share your compensation online, here are some best practices to follow:
Be Selective in Details
Rather than listing your exact annual salary, consider sharing just a general range or approximate percentage of increase. This provides useful insight without overexposing your situation.
Use Privacy Settings
Use LinkedIn’s privacy settings to limit who can view your post. Share the information just with your direct professional connections rather than publicly.
Add Context
Provide details on factors like location, industry, years of experience and benefits/perks to add helpful context. This gives a more complete picture.
Frame Positively
Avoid comparing your compensation to others or complaints about your pay. Instead, frame your post in a positive light focused on your excitement and gratitude.
Update as Needed
Revisit old posts about your salary and edit or remove them as necessary if your situation changes. Keeping information current is wise.
Alternatives to Posting Your Exact Salary
If you want to participate in pay transparency but aren’t comfortable posting your own salary, there are a few alternatives to consider:
General Insights
Share general information learned through your own compensation negotiations without using exact figures. For example, “Based on my recent negotiations, I’ve learned our field pays a 5-15% premium for advanced certifications.”
Salary Surveys
Reference broader salary survey data to provide insights to your connections. You could note, “According to [source], the average salary for my role in this city is $XX,XXX.”
Career Progression
Discuss your salary growth throughout your career progression rather than posting exact current figures. This shows you have consistently negotiated fair compensation over time.
Comp Ratio
Share your salary as a ratio to comparable peers, such as “My compensation is right at the median level for my position, experience and location.” This provides context without overexposing details.
Equal Pay Advocacy
Advocate for pay equity and transparency broadly without divulging your own salary. Share resources to empower compensation discussions without directly participating yourself.
The Case for More Openness
While posting your own salary online comes with risks, many experts advocate for more openness around compensation in general. Here’s a look at the case for pay transparency:
Promotes Fairness
discussing pay fosters equity by revealing disparities. Secret salaries enable discrimination and unfair practices.
Empowers Employees
Salary transparency allows workers to benchmark their value and better negotiate fair pay based on market data.
Strengthens Culture
Openness around pay minimizes harmful rumor-milling and resentment. It reflects trust between employers and staff.
Improves Retention
Employees who feel they are paid fairly based on clear compensation structures are more loyal and engaged.
Aligns with Values
For companies that value diversity, equity and inclusion, pay transparency is a matter of integrity.
Enhances Business Outcomes
Fair compensation structures that reward top talent boost productivity, innovation and the bottom line.
What LinkedIn Says About Salary Posts
LinkedIn provides a platform to have compensation conversations, but also gives guidance on safely navigating pay discussions. Here are some key points from LinkedIn on sharing salary information:
Use Caution
Think carefully before posting your own salary. Once it’s online, you can’t control who sees it or how it’s interpreted.
Consider Alternatives
Instead of posting figures, share data from surveys or frame as ratios or percentages. This provides insights without overexposing your situation.
Add Context
If you do post your salary, provide ample context on your location, role, experience and other factors so it’s not misinterpreted.
Use Privacy
Adjust your settings so only direct connections, not the whole internet, can view your post to be cautious.
Be Positive
Frame your compensation discussions in a constructive way, not complaints or comparisons that could be morale-damaging.
Update Accordingly
Just as you update your profile, keep salary information current if your situation evolves over time.
The Risks of Posting Salaries Anonymously
Anonymizing your compensation post by hiding your identity may seem like it allows you to avoid risks. However, there are still hazards with this approach:
Loss of Context
Without details like your job title and employer, your salary has little meaning for others to interpret.
Inaccurate Insights
Anonymous posts could share exaggerated or entirely fabricated salaries and provide misleading insights.
Confusing Comparisons
Anonymous compensation data strips away factors like experience, education, location and benefits that make the data useful.
Reduced Trust
Anonymous posts lose the credibility of being able to verify the source and their qualifications.
Dehumanizing Discussions
Anonymity fosters unconstructive conversations since posters are shielded from accountability.
Identity Still at Risk
Truly hiding your identity online is challenging. Anonymous salary posts could still compromise your privacy if linked back to you.
How to Request to Remove a Salary Post
If you change your mind after posting your salary online, here are steps to request getting the information removed:
Reflect Carefully
Think through why you want the post removed. Is it due to new concerns over privacy or pay negotiations? Or only embarrassment over lower-than-expected salary?
Act Quickly
Request removal as soon as possible. The longer a post with sensitive details is online, the more likely it is to be seen and shared.
Adjust Privacy
While awaiting removal, adjust privacy settings to limit visibility as much as possible to minimize damage.
Contact Poster
If someone else posted about your pay, politely request they remove or anonymize the post to protect your privacy.
Use Tools
LinkedIn and other platforms provide options to report or request removal of posts that violate their rules or your privacy.
Learn from It
Let the experience guide your personal social media policies going forward. Think twice before posting something sensitive online.
Key Takeaways
Posting your salary on LinkedIn comes with a mix of advantages and risks to weigh carefully:
Pros:
- Promoting pay equity
- Empowering fellow professionals
- Personal brand building
- Making connections
Cons:
- Identity theft risks
- Current job jeopardy
- Future negotiation power lost
- Misleading colleagues
- Causing resentment
- Policy violations
Consider your industry culture, career stage and LinkedIn connections before deciding if posting your pay is right for you. Seek alternatives like general insights if unsure. But in any case, use privacy settings and always add ample context.
The Bottom Line
Posting your exact current salary on a public platform like LinkedIn is a very personal choice. There are reasonable arguments on both sides of the pay transparency debate. While sharing your compensation could help empower colleagues and promote fairness, it also comes with serious privacy and career risks to weigh. Proceed cautiously, use privacy controls, and add context if you do share your pay. But also know that you can still support pay equity without publicly posting your own salary online.