英国公司让员工自定薪水

A London betting firm offers employees the chance to decide their own salary as well as check what their colleagues are paid.

Smarkets encourages their staff to raise pay rise requests endorsed by peers who offer suggestions on a suitable rise percentage.

However, if the person isn’t happy with the suggestions given, they can also come up with their own request, which is typically between 10 and 30 percent.

The radical pay transparency policy also allows staff to check their colleagues’ salaries in a bid to minimize the gender pay gap.

Angeline Mulet-Marquis, a software engineer at Smarkets, said, “Most people get what they ask for.”

Mulet-Marquis requested a 12 percent rise in her last appraisal which was granted to her.

The starting salary for a graduate engineer is around US$63,423 but it can rise to a six-figure sum for highly qualified seniors.

U.K. broadcaster BBC was forced last year to disclose the salaries of some of its top staff, showing men made up 12 of the 14 highest-paid posts and leading to complaints of unequal pay for the same work.

Software engineer Caglar Senel said allowing employees to see each other’s salaries is a way through which companies can ensure equal pay.

However several staff believe that the same approach may not work everywhere as pay transparency could be demotivating.

In Norway the tax agency publishes key information online about taxpayers each year, including their earnings and wealth, allowing Norwegians to see how much their colleagues are earning.

There are similar approaches in Finland, where people can request tax information by phone or in person, while in Ireland employees have a right to request pay information broken down by gender for the same level of work.

A study by the European Commission found “cultural sensitivity” was the most common barrier to rolling out similar pay information rules across the continent, while in Britain the associated costs were the main obstacle.

Words to Learn

相关词汇

【支持】zhīchí

endorse approve openly

【划分】huàfèn

break down separate something into smaller parts

伦敦的一家博彩公司为员工提供了一个决定自己薪水的机会，同时也能查看同事的薪水。

Smarkets公司鼓励员工向公司提出加薪请求，这一请求需要得到同事们的支持，同事们还会对合适的加薪幅度提出建议。

但如果员工对同事提出的加薪建议不满，他们也可以提出自己的要求。加薪幅度一般在10%到30%之间。

这种激进的薪酬透明政策还允许员工查看同事的薪酬，以尽量缩小男女薪酬差距。Smarkets公司的软件工程师安吉丽娜•穆莱特•马奎斯说:“大多数人都能得到想要的薪水。”

在公司对她的上次评估中，她要求获得12%的加薪，并如愿得到。研究生工程师的起薪约为63423美元，但对于优质的资深员工来说，起薪可升至6位数。

去年，英国广播公司被迫披露了一些高级职员的工资，显示男性在14个薪酬最高的职位中占12个，并引发了关于同一工作薪酬不平等的投诉。

软件工程师卡尔加•塞内尔说，允许员工看到同事的薪水是公司确保同工同酬的一种方式。

然而，也有几位员工认为，这种做法可能并不适合于所有公司，因为薪酬透明也可能让人产生消极情绪。

在挪威，税务局每年都会在网上公布纳税人的主要信息，包括他们的收入和财富，这样挪威人就可以看到他们的同事挣了多少钱。芬兰也有类似的做法，人们可以电话问询或亲自前往有关部门要求得到税务信息，而爱尔兰的员工有权要求提供按性别分类的同级别工作的薪酬信息。

欧盟委员会的一项研究发现，“文化敏感性”是在欧洲大陆推广类似的薪金信息披露规则的最常见障碍，而英国的主要障碍是推行计划的相关成本。 (chinadaily.com.cn)