A week ago educator and content creator Ankur Warikoo, 41, took to LinkedIn to share that his startup follows “cent per cent transparency” where everybody knows everyone’s salary. “Every month, the company financials are shared with the team... There is nothing hidden. I want people to focus on their work and their growth. Not in uncovering secrets; there shouldn’t be secrets,” wrote the Faridabad-based author-entrepreneur. His post received bricks and bouquets in equal measure. While some appreciated the idea of pay transparency, others termed it impractical, dangerous, and a nightmare for the human resource team. 

“Both, the companies and employees spend an obnoxious amount of effort towards hiding and finding  everybody’s salaries, even though it is unnecessary,” Warikoo tells mid-day, adding that the reason why companies do it is because they lack the mechanism to determine the right salary for a person hired at a certain level or designation. “The moment a person goes to their head of the department [HOD] or HR saying they have another job offer, the company realises that they can’t afford to lose that person. They try to match the salary that has been offered to them. When they do it, the system has been disrupted and now that person’s salary has to be kept a secret from others.”