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...if our boss accidentally publishes everyone's salary to everyone in your company (and a few outside of it)???

I am pretty upset about how everyone in the company now knows my salary, but I wonder how everyone else feels about it. What would you think?

I would freak. I own a landscaping company and I never tell anyone what I charge per hour.

I think you have a right to be upset. Just my 2 cents.

Was it just your salary or others as well?

In private companies, they make a big deal of it. It's even a firing offense some places to discuss salaries with your coworkers.

In some public or government jobs, everyone's salary is public knowledge.

I think I'd be upset the info got out.

Do you think others will be jealous of your salary? Are you paid considerably less than your peers?

This is a great opportunity for the lower paid people to request equalizing adjustments from management.

It was every single employee's salary plus a couple of past employees also.

I am one of the higher compensated, as I have been with the company the longest time. So I do wonder about others' feelings. It's just human nature.

It certainly is unprofessional and opens up emotion and negative morale issues but - it isn't criminal.

I'm a Sr Exec at a publicly held company. There is so much that goes into compensation - education, experience, longevity, lateral transfers vs upward mobility, market conditions, regionality, industry, comp ranges available within a role profile, dept, or function, etc.

There are also things like more/less benefits; stock options; long-term incentive packages; bonuses; and so on.

When "word on the street" reaches me that so and so has been discussing salary and comp; I tend to ask the person speaking with me, "do you believe what they're saying?", and, "are you sure you want to know?".

Now, in your case, a published list (presumably accurate data) eliminates speculation about the source and honesty but in the end, is anyone reading it or being upset about going to change the immediate situation? No.

It might open up future discussions for role profile or position leveling - or at least lend itself to discussing compensation factors within your organization and how various attributes are weighted and rewarded.

At the very least, an acknowledgement that the data went out mistakenly and an apology is in order.

It's even a firing offense some places to discuss salaries with your coworkers.

This is how it is at the company I work for. That being said, it's a small company, and just about all of the VPs are also on the board. The board is who determines salary, approves raises, and apparently who gets a year-end bonus. So really, the officers (about half the company) already know everyone's salaries and the policy is in place to protect how much they earn from those of us who are on the low end of the pay scale.

Given my position and since I only started this job less than a year ago, it wouldn't really bother me if co-workers found out how much I make. I guess I kind of figure they probably can guess it pretty accurately anyway, if they are one of those that already know.

But, in other circumstances, I can see how it would not be a good thing for that information to get out. And really, it's not any of their business anyway.

In my company, that would be a huge mistake and would probably get somebody fired. Personally, I wouldn't care if others knew my salary. However, they would certainly care since I make more than majority of the people in my position and I've only been here 2 years.