[swombat]

Open pay scales are a start, but non-transparent salaries can easily hide in there if all you have is pay scales.

You need two things for actual salary transparency:

1) Everyone's actual salary is accessible - as in, the actual amount they're paid each month, the transaction. This way everyone can know that there's nothing unfair hiding in there.

2) The reason why everyone's salary is what it is is transparent and accessible. Otherwise, the unfairness moves to how people are assigned to different salary bands. "John got assigned to Salary Band E3 because he plays golf with the boss" should not be a possible scenario. If it is, you don't have transparent salaries.

Compensation isn't just made up of numbers, it's made up of explanations too.

[bcg1]

I think this level of detail is pretty good, even though it doesn't have specific transactions necessarily:

http://seethroughny.net/index.php?cID=375

AFAIK this is compiled by a non-governmental organization however.

[irishcoffee]

1.) No, that's asinine. Look up the tax records of someone if you want to know that information. There are reasons people would want to keep their paycheck private, for very legitimate reasons.

2.) That first sentence doesn't make any sense. The second sentence is also asinine. You get on a pay band based on merit at work. If that isn't the case, or if you don't like politics at work, find a new job.. or realize there will always be politics at work.

I'm not sure if you're a huge privacy advocate, but if you are, these ideas are a direct contradiction to privacy. Can't have my phone metadata, but if I can't see your pay stub life isn't fair.