logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2022
18m 55s

Should we be more open about salaries?

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Salaries are often kept secret in most workplaces - but times are changing.

The BBC’s Deborah Weitzmann discusses implications for pay transparency policies and the gender wage gap.

Deborah visits Flash Pack, a travel firm in London where staff members are open about their salaries. She travels to New York City where employers are preparing for a new law requiring them to post clear salary bands in job listings later this year - following the US state of Colorado. She speaks to Scott Goldshine, general manager of Manhattan-based deli Zabars.

Deborah also hears from salary expert David Turetsky about why some people find conversations around pay difficult, and Dr Grace Lordan from the London School of Economics explains how openness about pay might benefit women and address the gender pay gap.

Presented and produced by Deborah Weitzmann.

(Image: An office meeting. Credit: Getty)

Up next
Yesterday
Is Gen Z the most investment-savvy generation?
Generation Z - people born in the mid-to-late 1990s up to the early 2010s - is reportedly the new driving force behind retail investing. We look at the areas they are investing in, and why financial influencers are not always what they seem. To get in touch with the programme, se ... Show More
17m 28s
Aug 24
Spain's power blackout: what went wrong?
On the morning of the 28th of April, Spain lost electric power equivalent to that generated by ten nuclear plants, leaving the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, including Portugal and parts of France, without electricity for up to 12 hours. We examine the cause of the blackout that ... Show More
17m 28s
Aug 21
Business Daily meets: Spencer Horne
The South African entrepreneur tells us about his experience growing up under the apartheid regime, before securing a scholarship that would take him to Harvard University in the US.He's now returned home to set up Cloudline, an airship company which aims to deliver goods and car ... Show More
17m 29s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2019
Let’s Talk About Money
Talking with colleagues about how much we earn can help us figure out if we’re being paid fairly, but sharing those numbers is stressful. With the help of experts, we discuss the tricky practicalities of salary disclosure and what to do with that sensitive information once we’ve ... Show More
1h 9m
Apr 2024
Nobody knows how much anybody is making
No matter what job you have, you’ve probably felt at various points in your career that you don’t make enough. And because money can be a taboo topic, we rarely reveal what our salaries are—even with the people we’re closest to. In a recent survey, only about half the participant ... Show More
33m 40s
Apr 2023
Podcast 194: Is pay transparency good for business?
If pay transparency is good for workplace fairness, why isn’t everyone doing it? The calls for pay transparency as a means to remedy existing inequalities and close gender and racial pay gaps are loud and many. But the reality of implementing it is not without complications. Join ... Show More
33m 56s
Oct 2021
The Gender Pay Gap
Tim Harford talks to Planet Money’s Stacey Vanek Smith about the gender pay gap in the US and the UK – and how Renaissance writer, Machiavelli might be an unlikely source of inspiration for women in the workplace. 
8m 58s
Jul 2022
The Benefits and Pitfalls of Salary Transparency with Jason Tartick
Nothing excites millennials and surprises baby boomers quite like our penchant for sharing how much money we make with one another. But salary transparency—one of the latest tactics for rectifying biases in hiring and compensation—is a means to an end, not the end itself. In this ... Show More
47m 28s
Nov 2021
Why the Highest Paying Jobs So Rarely Go to Women
Companies pay disproportionately high salaries to CEOs and other high-powered professionals willing to live and breathe their jobs, on-call 24/7, ready to pick up and travel. It's a phenomenon Harvard historian and economist Claudia Goldin calls "greedy work" and she says it's a ... Show More
23m 31s
Mar 2023
Money Talks, You Know What, Walks...
Money, money, money must be funny in the rich man's world! One very eager listener, Confounded with Comp in Canada, is interested in maximizing their money at work. Tune in to learn how to:Negotiate a higher salary offer with a new employer…Ask for a salary range in an inter ... Show More
36m 11s
Feb 2018
Mind the (Wage) Gap
The gender wage gap is the lifetime financial curse that punishes so many of us. What’s going on in women’s careers that causes us to earn so much less? Guests: Claudia Goldin and Margaret Gullette. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network. For l ... Show More
44m 10s
Oct 2019
What is the value of women’s work?
Iceland has taken radical measures to reduce its gender pay gap. These aren't just about equalising pay when men and women do the same job but when they do different jobs of equal value. That's proved to be quite a sticking point in many countries around the world; ensuring that ... Show More
26m 37s