Woman reveals every salary she’s ever had on LinkedIn to prompt greater pay transparency

A woman has revealed some very personal information on LinkedIn — and divided the internet about whether it’s a genius move or not.

Her actions on LinkedIn have gone viral and has been praised online, but others aren’t so sure.

One American woman is trying to create greater job transparency by sharing her salaries on LinkedIn — and it’s divided the internet about whether it’s a genius move or not.

Taking to TikTok, Philadelphia-based researcher Charlotte Chaze shared her LinkedIn profile with her followers.

In it, she has listed the salary of every single job she’s ever had, including unpaid internships and roles where she was paid as little as €2 ($3.82) per hour.

Her jobs ranged from being a quality assurance employee, a research assistant, a data analyst and a tech founder, which is her current role.

Ms Chaze’s now-viral video, which has garnered 470,000 views since being posted a week ago, has opened up the floor to discussion on wider issues such as pay secrecy clauses and also pay negotiations.

“I just added my salary information to every full-time job I’ve had that’s on my LinkedIn,” she said.

“From unpaid to $12 an hour, €2 an hour, $29,000, $28,000, $70,000, $90,000, $104,000, $158,000. I know this won’t catch on LinkedIn, but if it did …”

The video caption said, “Doing my part to make salary transparency happen.”

Her video garnered enthusiasm online, with one person saying, “Making the jump from $28,000 to $70,000 is impressive and this is the hope and inspiration I needed to see today.”

“Brilliant, and brave. This should be normalised,” said another, with someone else labelling it a “ballsy move”.

“In Sweden, Norway and Finland, information about every individual income is available to anyone,” another social media user weighed in.

However, others had a word of warning if this ever became a trend.

“The other side is employers using your current and past salary to lowball your new salary if it’s a jump in pay,” said one.

Another noted, “My fear is that it puts folks in a position to want to pay you in relation to what you’ve been paid previously. Your previous salary should have very little influence in your current salary negotiations. You’re worth what they’re willing to pay that you can convince them of.”

Charlotte Chaze is trying to start a new trend.

This person listed all their past and current salaries on LinkedIn.
Would you do it? I’m kinda digging it. pic.twitter.com/lKPVFIEzv3

— zakovska (@sanjazakovska) July 10, 2023

Her viral video also brought into the spotlight pay secrecy clauses, which bans some workers from discussing their salary package with colleagues.

“In most company bylaws it is forbidden to disclose salary,” one social media user pointed out.

Indeed, in Australia, some companies still have these rules in place, which has been blasted by the Financial Services Union as “draconian”.

But at the end of last year, from December 7, a new law was passed to make pay secrecy clauses in any Australian contract illegal. This new rule kicked in last month, on June 7.

The clause still remains for existing contracts but must be abolished the next time the contract is updated, such as when a new enterprise agreement is reached or when the employee gets a pay rise.

The Fair Work Ombudsman maintains its right to punish companies that don’t adhere to this.

Unfortunately for some Aussie workers, this change came too late to save them from getting fired.

In 2021, a Commonwealth Bank employee made headlines for getting the sack after discussing his pay with colleagues, which breached the company’s controversial salary secrecy condition.

Just a few days before his six-month probation was ending, the home loan lender was fired in October with the dismissal letter outlining a number of reasons for “unacceptable conduct”, with one covering “discussing confidential remuneration with colleagues”.

Then in July last year, a Primo Foods quality assurance officer in Brisbane was dismissed for breaking the company’s confidentiality policy.