What are the pros and cons of disclosing your salary?
I am a junior full-stack developer. I graduated 4 months back and have been working here since. My internship stipend was initially 30k, which is slightly higher than what most internships are paying these days. However, my full-time CTC is approximately 55k per month, which is something I am not happy with but it's ok for the time being, however that is not the point of the post.
I have had people ask me how much I am earning and to be honest. I don't feel like disclosing it to them. Some of the reasons are:
- Sometimes somebody might be better than or more hard working but they might still be drawing less salary than me, me disclosing my salary might hurt their self esteem in some aspect. So it's better I don't discuss.
- Nosey relatives/friends feel they're entitled to know my salary. There's no harm in telling them, but I like to play around with their entitlement and not give them what they want.
- I don’t even bother disclosing my salary to friends because sometimes people start asking for money and just expect you to have it.
I don’t really see anything positive about them knowing how much I earn.
What’s interesting is that people often ask how much you’re earning instead of asking what kind of work you’re doing, what problems you’re solving, or understanding your current work and future goals.
The above is just my opinion, yours might differ.