How much do you earn?

Everytime I ask a colleague about his/her salary, I get a I-can't-believe-you-are-asking-me-this-question look. Ok then, I'd say, "If you tell me yours, I'd tell you mine....?" and then get an even more incredulous are-you-mad? look.

Is it really illegal to discuss about salaries in your workplace?

And so at best, we gossip about who's getting what... and assume those with higher grades, bigger cars, nicer apartments or more pompous sounding job titles get more. Always, when people tell me so and so earn 'a lot', I can't resist the invitation to ask, "What is a lot?" and then get the are-you-serious-you-don't-you-know-what-is-a-lot? look.

I seriously don't. I mean, unless you do, you are simply just guessing right?

And so when people ( if they are mad like me) ask me how much I earn? I have only 1 pre-requisite - you tell me yours and I'd tell you mine.

How do you then decide whether what you are paid is fair? If it isn't, how then do you make sure you get adjusted?

... Fortunately, or unfortunately, I got to learn a bit more about how this works as a manager:

> do you give more to the employee who grumbles about being paid 'less' that he/she should?
> do you give more to the employee who is underpaid for his/her level but does not know about it?
> do you give more to the employee who threatens to leave if his/her pay is not adjusted?
> do you give more to the employee who is being promoted?
> do you give more to the employee who's personal circumstances has changed?

...and finally when you finish balancing your sums and your conscience, you'd find that it's all a stupid game, because the rules somehow changes and someone with a bigger hand swoops down to undress your bishop and knights in what they call a top-down approach.