Pay transparency in nursing & among the nurse practitioner community is the practice of openly and proactively sharing information on compensation as a step forward towards pay equity. 

Openly discussing salary, however, is still considered a bit  “taboo”. Many people find it uncomfortable to talk about salary with peers, or even requesting to see a clear pay range when applying for a job.

But without clarity about money, how can nurses be empowered to make informed decisions?

 

Salary Transparency: What You Need to Know

In today’s episode, I’m chatting all about:

• Pay transparency – what it is, how to do it correctly, and the benefits.
• Knowing your legal rights when it comes to salary transparency.
• The 3 reasons why NPs need to talk about pay.
• Reducing the race and gender wage gap. 
• My NP Salary Report… and how you can get it for FREE!
• And more… (there’s always more! 😉)

 

LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED TODAY: 

• Click Here To Read The Full Transcription for this episode!
• The [free] NP Salary Report is Live! Submit your anonymous report and access the database at theresumerx.com/salary
  
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What is salary transparency? 

Salary or pay transparency centers around:

1. Companies being upfront and transparent about their pay range for a position in the job description, and,

2. The practice of discussing and disclosing salaries among colleagues & professionals and making it less taboo to tell someone else how much money you make. 

Many people, myself included, were raised not to talk about money… politics… religion… But when it comes to pay and salary, there are so many gaps and disparities happening because people aren’t talking about it! So, we need to normalize this a little bit more. 

 

Are you allowed to talk about salary in the workplace?

In the past, employers could hold the act of you discussing your pay with other employees against you. However, in the United States, per the US Department of Labor under Executive Order 11246, you have the right to inquire about, discuss or disclose your own pay, or that of other employees or applicants. 

This is a protection, meaning, you cannot be disciplined, harassed, demoted, terminated, denied employment or otherwise discriminated or retaliated against, because you exercised this right. So what that’s saying is that you are free to ask your colleagues, especially those who are in the same role as you what their salary is. 

 

Three major benefits to talking about salary

 

1) Pay transparency elevates the entire profession as we move towards earning our worth.

It’s no secret that there are some employers out there who are seriously underpaying nurse practitioners. There are some really shameful practices of employers who are really low-balling NPs. But when we are all better informed, it means that we can appropriately negotiate the terms we deserve! We can also create realistic expectations, and we can start to elevate the baseline expectation salary for our role.

 

2) Pay transparency is respectful of everyone’s time.

It takes time, effort, and often money or opportunity cost of money to apply for jobs and go on interviews. And it’s the same for the employer. It’s respectful of everyone’s time to at least provide a general range of salary so that the applicant can decide whether or not to pursue the job opportunity.

 

3) Pay transparency helps reduce the race and gender wage gaps.

This is a serious problem in our country, and it has been for many years.
We cannot rely on the system to fix this for us. This is a systemic issue, and while yes, there are some systemic solutions, we have the opportunity to help push this forward by bringing more awareness to the reality.
Those in marginalized groups when it comes to pay, namely, women or non men, and particularly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, can only advocate for themselves when they have the tools to know when there’s a problem. So opening up these conversations is not only important, but also necessary.

Final thoughts

I’d love to know your thoughts on pay transparency, are you for it? Are you against it? Are there major drawbacks that I didn’t consider? I would love for us to have this conversation. If this episode inspired you in some way, give me a shoutout on Instagram @theresumerx, I’d love to hear your reflections!

If raising awareness about pay transparency resonates with you, then you’re gonna want to get in on The NP Salary Report — a reliable crowd-sourced database of real NP salaries that gives you the insight to “know what you’re worth”!

Get the FREE NP Salary Report✨ My goal is to make this the internet’s largest NP-submitted salary database – providing a real-world reflection of the nurse practitioner compensation market so that NP’s are empowered to know & ask for the salary they deserve!