With over 800 million members, LinkedIn has become the world’s largest professional network. As a platform built around career and business networking, LinkedIn prompts members to provide details about their work histories, skills, education and more. One piece of information members can choose to add to their profiles is their salary or pay rate at various jobs. However, given the sensitive nature of income disclosures, the decision of whether or not to publicly share your salary on LinkedIn is one not to be taken lightly. There are pros and cons to consider when determining if displaying your salary is the right choice for you.
Quick Overview: Pros of Sharing Your Salary
Here is a quick overview of some potential benefits of making your salary public on LinkedIn:
– Promote salary transparency: Adding your pay to your profile fosters greater openness about compensation at companies, which can help close gender and racial pay gaps.
– Signal your earning power: Listing a high salary or pay rate can help demonstrate your value and command over the job market. This can be useful when networking or exploring new job options.
– Support salary negotiations: Having pay stats on your profile provides a reference point for negotiating salaries at a new job. You can point to your prior earning history during discussions.
– Expand access to opportunities: Some career coaches suggest a high public salary, especially for recent grads or those new to industries, can open doors and attract exciting offers from companies.
Quick Overview: Cons of Sharing Your Salary
Here are some potential drawbacks to consider before posting your pay on LinkedIn:
– Oversharing sensitive info: Salary is still seen by many as private, personal data, so sharing it publicly violates privacy preferences.
– Signal for underpayment: A lower than typical salary for your role/experience may undermine your employer brand or perceived competency.
– Inaccurate portrayals: Salaries vary based on location, bonuses, benefits and other factors not listed. Disclosing just a salary figure lacks important context.
– Alienates colleagues: Posting a high pay rate could breed resentment from coworkers or connections earning less in similar roles.
– Anchors negotiations: Existing published pay on your profile anchors expectations for future earnings. This can limit your negotiating leverage.
The Pros and Cons in More Detail
Now let’s dive deeper into the potential advantages and disadvantages of telling LinkedIn your salary or pay rate.
Pros of Disclosing Your Salary on LinkedIn
Promotes Pay Transparency
One frequently cited benefit of sharing your compensation on your LinkedIn profile is that it fosters greater transparency around pay at companies. Over half of U.S. workers report being discouraged or outright banned from talking about pay rates at work. This lack of openness contributes to pay inequality across gender and racial lines. Women and minorities are often paid less than white male colleagues for the same roles at firms. By listing your real salary for positions, you help address the taboo around income and empower those disadvantaged to better negotiate fair compensation. Greater pay transparency facilitates important discussions about appropriate pay.
Signals Your Earning Potential
Posting your salary for a job, especially if at the higher end of the typical range, can help demonstrate your value and command over the job market. Hiring managers and corporate recruiters frequently use LinkedIn to evaluate candidates’ backgrounds and experience. Seeing a healthy pay rate for your current or past roles signals that companies reward your contributions handsomely. This earning potential indicator can strengthen your employer brand and help you attract exciting new job options or consulting gigs.
Supports Your Salary Negotiations
When engaging in salary negotiations for a new position, it can be very helpful to reference your specific earning history at past jobs. However, few hiring managers will put much stock in your own verbal report of prior salaries. Having your published pay rates right on your profile provides solid evidence around your historical compensation. You can point negotiating partners to this information to justify requests for higher starting pay at their firm. Your demonstrated earning trajectory can justify commanding a certain salary range.
Expands Access to High-Paying Opportunities
Some career coaches and recruiters advise those new to industries or with only a few years of experience to share their pay rates, if high, on LinkedIn. Doing so can purportedly open doors to the types of high-paying, sought-after positions that top talent commands. Rather than assuming an unproven candidate might not merit elevated compensation packages, companies that see evidence of your existing high salary on LinkedIn may take a chance and extend generous offers.
Cons of Posting Your Salary on LinkedIn
Can Violate Privacy Preferences
Perhaps the top reason to avoid sharing your pay on LinkedIn is that salary remains a very personal, private data point for many professionals. In surveys, most workers report keeping their exact income confidential and disliking colleagues prying about it. Even amidst growing calls for pay transparency, some individuals may simply not feel comfortable publicly posting such sensitive information to their profiles. For many, a social media site seems too public a venue for something as private as your income.
Risks Undervaluing Your Worth
If your salary lands on the lower end of typical compensation ranges, displaying this pay figure publicly on LinkedIn can inadvertently undermine your employer brand and perceived competency. Those evaluating you for networking, job search or consulting opportunities may associate your lower pay with weaker capabilities vs. higher earning peers. This risks closing doors to quality opportunities. Keeping your compensation confidential sidesteps any preconceived notions tied to a potentially undermarket salary.
Lacks Important Context
While posting a static salary figure on your profile provides some level of pay transparency, it lacks the context to properly interpret the appropriateness of that compensation. Salaries vary significantly based on job location, years of relevant experience, bonus structures, benefits packages and more. Without all the details around factors determining appropriate pay, your posted salary lacks the perspective to make meaningful comparisons and conclusions.
Risks Alienating Colleagues
Let’s face it, compensation can be a sensitive, emotionally-charged topic among colleagues. Posting your high salary for a position on a public profile risks breeding resentment from professional connections in similar roles earning less. They may see your published pay rate as boastful or self-promoting. This damages working relationships and creates friction. Being cognizant of how colleagues may perceive your displayed salary helps avoid misunderstandings.
Anchors Negotiations
Having an existing published pay rate on your profile also anchors expectations and limits negotiating leverage for future roles. Hiring managers can cite your exact salary history as rationale for offering similar or only slightly elevated compensation packages. This curtails your ability to make the case for significant pay jumps. Anchoring to your posted salaries also risks leaving extra money on the table when changing jobs or fields.
Factors to Consider When Deciding
When weighing whether displaying your salary makes sense for your situation, here are some additional factors to take into account:
Your Industry Culture
The culture around pay transparency varies significantly across industries. Tech firms and startups tend to embrace openness about salaries, while most law, finance and professional services firms still discourage sharing specifics. Understanding cultural norms can guide your decision making.
Who Views Your Profile
Consider your audience on LinkedIn. Is your profile visible only to direct connections, or does your job involve lots of open networking? A more public presence merits more caution about oversharing sensitive pay information.
Stage of Your Career
Those earlier in their careers may benefit more from signaling earning potential to the market. However, mid and late career professionals have likely established their employer brand, so have less need to post salaries publicly.
If You Want a New Job
If exploring new opportunities, sharing your pay can help benchmark offers, but also risks anchoring new companies to your current level. Evaluate your priorities and positioning strategy.
Whether Your Pay Is Typical
If on the high or low end of the range for your role, extra caution may be warranted, as your salary will stand out from the norm. Consider context and how your connections will perceive an outlier salary.
Best Practices If Sharing Your Salary
For those that ultimately decide to share their compensation details on LinkedIn, here are some best practices to follow:
– Frame your pay judiciously. Focus on sharing salary details only for positions where you were paid at or above market rates to avoid undervaluing perceptions.
– Provide context. Note key factors like locations, bonuses, stock options etc. to properly frame your full compensation package.
– Disclaimers help. Add a note explaining your rationale for sharing helps preempt any misunderstandings about intent.
– Be positive. Avoid any language that sounds boastful and focus on contributing to beneficial pay transparency.
– Personalize disclosures. Share salary info only with connections likely to understand your motives and in a gracious, professional manner.
Alternatives to Sharing Specific Salaries
If you decide posting specific compensation figures doesn’t align with your preferences and goals, here are a few alternatives to consider:
– Use salary ranges or buckets. For example, note you earned between $100-120k rather than your exact $108k base pay. This maintains some transparency without oversharing.
– List types of compensation. Rather than state you make $150k, list that you earned a salary, bonus, and stock options, giving a sense of earning elements.
– Note your target pay is “market rate” or “competitive” for roles. This signals you command typical earning levels without the specifics.
– Share your pay expectations. List the salary ranges you’d expect for new opportunities you are open to rather than prior earning history.
The Decision Comes Down to You
At the end of the day, whether to post your specific salary on LinkedIn is a very personal choice that comes down to your specific situation and comfort level. There are reasonable pros and cons on both sides of the issue. As long as you thoughtfully weigh the considerations and potential impacts, neither choice is inherently right or wrong. The most important factors are what makes sense for your career and what helps you feel empowered to achieve the professional success you desire. Trust your own judgment.
Conclusion
LinkedIn offers members the option to voluntarily disclose their salaries or pay rates for various jobs and positions on their profiles. Some professionals choose to provide this compensation information to promote pay transparency, signal earning potential and support their salary negotiations. However, there are also downsides to posting pay details publicly, including privacy concerns, undervaluing perceptions, lacking context and alienating colleagues. There are reasonable arguments on both sides of the sharing salary issue. In the end, you have to weigh the pros, cons and alternatives to decide what’s best for your own situation and comfort level. As long as you make an informed decision, neither choice is inherently right or wrong. What matters most is leveraging your LinkedIn presence to strategically further your career aspirations.