LinkedIn Asks: How Much Do You Make?

By Nathan Olivarez-Giles

LinkedIn Corp. wants to know how much money you make.

On Wednesday, the social network for professionals launched a new pay-comparison tool called LinkedIn Salary, which asks some prying questions, such as what's your base salary and do you get commissions or bonuses. In return, it lets you see salary ranges for various jobs across the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

Yes, that is the catch: To use the tool, you have to submit your salary -- which is how LinkedIn is building its salary database. (If you pay for LinkedIn's Premium membership, however, you don't have to disclose your earnings.)

LinkedIn said salary data won't show up on any user profiles, and all salary data will be encrypted and stored anonymously. A LinkedIn spokeswoman said the company also is using data from other public and private sources, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to make its data as trustworthy and accurate as possible.

"Recruiters won't be able to see your salary data or access it in any way," LinkedIn said on its support page. "In fact, no one will be able to see your salary data." What you submit is private and "will only be used as part of aggregations to compile overall insights."

LinkedIn users with access will see charts of salaries that highlight variations across industries and jobs based on where you live, education level, company size and years of experience. Commission and bonus information can be seen separately in the LinkedIn Salary tool.

The tool puts LinkedIn squarely in competition with websites that have offered salary-comparison data for years, such as Glassdoor, PayScale, Comparably and Monster.

Self-reported income information can provide useful guidance, but it also can be wildly misleading, especially when the sample sizes aren't very big. LinkedIn already has data on many professions, including sous chef, investment banker and registered nurse, but it is missing income intel on other professions, including cartoonist, yoga instructor and journalist. As more LinkedIn members share their salaries, that should change.

Write to Nathan Olivarez-Giles at Nathan.Olivarez-giles@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 02, 2016 17:18 ET (21:18 GMT)

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