There's always been a lot of talk about pay transparency as a progressive step for companies to make.

Me? I'm a classically trained HR pro, so I'm against it.  But one company has gone big (Buffer) and not only made salaries available to all employees, but also to the outside world.  

The company size?  Of course, Buffer is very small - 10-15 employees.  If they grow to 300 employees, the exceptions they'll have to make will more than likely render the model useless.  But for now it's interesting.

See more on the model as well as the actual salaries of employees at Buffer by clicking here.  For now, here's the highlights:

The salary formula

Salary = job type X seniority X experience + location (+ $10K if salary choice)

• job type = base
• happiness hero = $45,000
• content crafter = $50,000
• engineer = $60,000
• designer = $60,000
• Operations officer base = $70,000
• Executive officer base = $75,000

• seniority = base multiplier
• Senior + 5% base and 3k/$m revenue
• Lead +7% base and 4k/$m revenue
• VP + 10% and 6k/$m revenue
• C-level +20% and 8k/$m revenue
• COO +20% and 10k/$m revenue
• CEO + 20% and 12k/$m revenue

• experience = multiplier
• Master: 1.3X
• Advanced: 1.2X
• Intermediate: 1.1X
• Junior: 1X

• location = additional
• A: +$22K (e.g. San Francisco, Hong Kong, Sydney, London, Paris, New York)
• B: +$12K (e.g. Nashville, Birmingham, Vienna, Austin, Vegas, Tel Aviv)
• C: +$6K (e.g. Talinn, Warsaw, Bucharest, Santiago)
• D: +$0K (e.g. Manila, Delhi, Hanoi)

• equity / salary choice
• you get a choice of more equity or more salary, if you choose salary, you get +$10K

See more on the model as well as the actual salaries of employees at Buffer by clicking here.