Is It Motivating Or Demotivating To Learn Others' Salaries?

Pay inequality is a fact of life. A manager gets paid more than her subordinates, her manager gets paid more than her, and her manager's boss gets paid even more. Everyone wonders how much their manager makes, and we are equally keen to learn about the difference in pay with our co-workers. In this episode, we look at recent research done regarding the impact of knowing the difference in pay of our peers and managers (and how much it impacts our quality and volume of work). Do people work harder when they learn that their boss makes more than they expected? And does it have an opposite effect when we learn about peers who make more than we thought? What should this data tell us about how much transparency companies should strive for with pay? Would Ian work so hard on this podcast if he thought Frank was making more for significantly less work?