 Hello, I'm your host Alex Friedberg and this is the Alex the Analyst Show. Thank you so much for joining me today. We are going to be talking about how you can figure out your co-worker's salary. Now, I think it is something that just about everybody thinks about, you know, are you making more than everybody else? Are you making less than everybody else? Do you have better perks and bonuses or do they? It's something that genuinely I thought about at every single job I've ever had. And I'm sure a lot of you guys can relate. So today that's what we're going to be talking about. I'm going to share my foolproof secret on how I have done it and how I still do it to this day. And, you know, we'll go into a few other quick stories about why that's important. You know, why would you want to know? How can it actually be beneficial to you? One second, my dog is being crazy. I don't know if you guys have seen Max lately. He's gotten big. Let me actually, Max, come here. Let me pull him up real quick because he's gotten huge and we just got him a caller. So he's official. So I don't know if you guys remember that cute little puppy that I had like, I don't know, two, three months ago. He is not that cute. Well, he's still a cute little puppy, but he is not that little puppy anymore. He has very much grown and he has this dog tag with his name Max on it. And so he's doing fantastic. He's living the dream. Thanks, buddy. Thanks for being part of the show. Now, I know what a lot of you guys are thinking, right? Alex, I already know, I already know how to get my coworker's salary. Like, I already know how to do this. All right. It's simple. You go to HR. You know, there's a cute girl named Heather. You see Heather? You know, what kind of coffee do you drink? And she says, oh, I drink pumpkin spice lattes, actually. And you say you'll get her one. Okay, and it's easy. You get her pumpkin spice latte. You do that for a few days and there starts to become this attraction growing between you. And, you know, you don't know how to explain it. But, you know, it's growing. You ask her out on a date. You guys go on a date. It goes well. I mean, things are going good. So, you decided, you know, this is your way to find out your coworker's salary. You got to really commit. This is an easy process. I know this is what you're thinking. But, you know, that friendship turns into romance. The romance turns into love. You marry her. You marry Heather right there on the spot a year later. And then on that honeymoon, beautiful honeymoon in Cabo, you turn to her and you say, hey, you know, I've been meaning to ask you, how much does Jeff make my coworker? And right then and there, she realizes that this entire time that's all you really wanted to know. She files for the divorce papers right then and there. It's not that easy. Okay. In fact, let me rephrase this. It's much easier than that is what I meant to say. Okay. I don't know how I went on that tangent. That was, that was, I did not have that planned. But it is much easier than that. Before I go into how to do it, I want to explain, get kind of an example of one of my previous coworkers, bless his heart, who had to learn this lesson the hard way about why it's important. I was working at a small company and I was a data analyst. I was working there for about a year and my coworker, we were, you know, we liked hanging out with each other. We talked and you know, I always thought that he made more than I did. I always thought that he had been there longer. He was older than I was, had a better education than I did. And so I always just figured he made more money than me. And I would talk to my wife about this. I'm like, you know, I'm sure this guy, he probably does, he probably does well. At that time I was making 63,000, right? And so just, I was thinking he probably made like 70. That was kind of my thought. So I get another job and we start texting back and forth and he's like, Hey, I always wanted to ask you, how much, what was your salary? He's like, I just get this feeling like I'm being underpaid. And I was like, Oh, that's, I was like, that's odd. Cause I always thought he would, I would be the one who thought I was underpaid. If you know what I mean? So I tell him, I'm like, yeah, I was making 63,000. How much were you making? And he goes, I was making $38,000. And I was like, I was like, you're joking with me. I was like, dude, you are worth so much more than that. Like 100%. Like you should be making double that. And it kind of shocked me. I just remember thinking about it. And I was like, this whole time for a whole year, he was making, was that like $25,000 less than me. And this guy's very smart, probably knew more than I did. Better education, all these things. I don't know, you know, and he was hired like only like a couple of months before me, like three to six months before me. So he wasn't there at that company much longer than I was. And I just remember like, I just remember talking to him about it. I was like, dude, you have got to ask for a raise. Like I just left. I know I was important to that company. You know, they really wanted me to stay. I left. I was like, now is your time to ask for more. And we talked for a little bit more. And then that conversation ended. I haven't talked to him since. We've messaged on LinkedIn once or twice, but I haven't really talked to him that much since. All I do know is that about a couple months later, he had left that company as well. And so I say all that because, you know, it does make a difference what your coworkers are making. If you're making $50,000 and your coworkers are all, everybody else is making $100,000, you are going to feel you're going to know for a fact that you are being underpaid. And you're going to definitely either feel a bit of resentment towards that company for paying you way under what everyone else is making, regardless of experience or all these things. Just that's a big gap difference. Now it's a big difference. And if you guys are all on the same level, like you have the same education, same experience, you guys are all kind of around the same area and you guys, you're making substantially less. Why is that? Right? Is that a policy thing? Is that an HR thing? Is that a company thing? And it can help you kind of navigate those waters because like I said, these things are important. So I'm going to tell you kind of my secret behind how I've been able to find out almost all of my coworkers' salaries. Now disclaimer, I don't use this on everybody. I don't go up to the director and just do this. I do it to people that are in a similar position that I can kind of base my salary off of to gain some information. So anyways, without further ado, here's my secret. I ask them. I literally just ask them what their salary is. And a bunch of people at home, a bunch of people watching this, wherever you are at home, wherever, are like freaking out right now. And I promise you, it's going to be okay. Give me a second. I'm laughing because this was something that was told to me by one of my old coworkers. And I absolutely refused. And it made me almost nauseous to even think about it because that sounded like the most awkward encounter of my life. But here's, I'm going to tell you how to do it. And I have never had someone that, actually, I've had one person say they didn't want to tell me. And I was totally fine with that. But I probably, at each job, asked three to four people in similar positions who I felt that knowing that salary would help me know my market, know my worth in the market, be able to better position myself for a a pay raise in the future. I strategically asked, I didn't just ask everybody that it's not how that works. All right. Here's how you do it. The first thing is, is you have to know them personally. I would not ask Joe Bob down in HR what he makes because I don't care. And I don't know Joe Bob. We don't have that kind of relationship. We don't have that kind of friendship. But I would ask, let's say Jeff, I would ask Jeff if, you know, we chat every day. Maybe we go grab coffee every so often. We have meetings together. If we're friendly, right? You do not have to be best friends with this person in order to do this. Okay. But and I'm about to give a big tip here in just a second. I highly recommend you getting to know this person and at least knowing them for a few months, at least three to six months. This is not a right off the bat. Hey, I just worked here. How much you make him? This is a, it's a process. Okay. Now I'm going to tell you how exactly how I do it right now. Give me one second. My cat is being, my cat is literally knocking off a Christmas ornament. And so I'm going to go, I'll be back in like 10 seconds. We put up a giant Christmas tree. I don't know if you guys watch my live stream, put a big, big Christmas tree in our corner of our thing and our cats love it. Of course they do. And so she's just sitting there knocking down ornaments. And so kind of had to stop that. I apologize. Where was I? I'm going to tell you exactly how I do it. And it's very simple, but it takes a little bit of courage. It takes a little bit of finesse and politeness and gentleness. I'm going to tell you how I do it. So I go up to, I get to know them for a while. I build just a casual relationship with them. You know, maybe I send them some memes. Maybe I send them some jokes. We email, we talk, we grab coffee every so maybe once a month. Again, you don't have to be close. And I go up to them. I say, hey, let's say Jeff. Jeff, you know, I've been, I've been here for six months. I'm really just trying to find kind of my place in the market because either I want to go somewhere else or I want to stay here and promote from within. I would love to get to know a little bit more about how much you make here and full disclosure, you know, I'm making 76,000 here. And so I really just wanted to know because you're in a very similar position. I wanted to know if you were making more than that or how much you were making compared to that just because honestly, I just want to know from being underpaid, from being overpaid. And I think it also might help you out, you know, just knowing how much I make as well. And, you know, there you go. I kind of, you know, I'm obviously freestyling this. So I would, if you have a relationship with someone, you know, you, you, you cater how you say it to that person. But in general, I am going to one, say, hey, Jeff, I kind of want to know this information. Two is here is my salary. Here's how much I'm making. So you were offering them basically a, you know, a piece card or a piece offering or however you want to say that, I don't know. Saying, here's how much I make, right? And you're not being like, it's not just them putting themselves on the line. It's you putting yourself out there because they could say no, and they could still know how much you make. And that's not a problem. It's just, you know, you want to be fully transparent with them. And that to me is the biggest thing. And then I have only had one person who was just like, Hey, I appreciate you telling me that, you know, I just don't want to share that. It's just a personal thing. You know, there's no big deal. I appreciate you talking with it. But every single other person who I've ever talked to about this or done this with has basically been like, Oh, yeah, that's no problem at all. Here's how much I make. And it's really easy. Again, it takes a little bit of courage, a little bit of social engineering. That's not the right term at all. But basically, I hope you guys cannot hear that because Max is just scratching himself on his collar for like 10 seconds straight, being super annoying. That's not true, Max. You're a delight. It takes a little bit of being social, getting to know people and then just being confident and just being like, look, here's how much I make. It will work. I would say nine times out of 10 is work for me. And the one time it didn't work, it was not a big deal. We totally went about our days, had no impact on our friendship or anything at all. So, you know, just got to do it right. That is my secret. And it has helped me a lot. And here's why. It helped me understand if I was being compensated fairly. So, I didn't start doing this until about two years ago. But when I started doing it, I was like, okay, you know, here's how much I'm making. And I find out how much they're making. Am I being paid more? If I'm being paid more, which has happened like twice, I was like, oh, I guess I am being paid fairly. This is fantastic. And, you know, one of the reasons I think about that is because I don't really have that educational background. I didn't have a ton of experience. And so, I thought that I might be underpaid because of that. And I didn't really know. I didn't know if I was or was not. And that could help me just understand if I should be asking for more, if I should be asking for less. Because if there's a master's degree over here and he's making less than I am, I'm doing pretty good. But if he has a master's and he's making twice as much as me, it might be time to start looking at getting a master's degree. Because apparently in this industry, or at this company, at least, that's a big difference. So that's a big thing that will cause my salary to increase, right? So it's important to know. Another thing is about like bonuses, right? Not everybody at your company gets a bonus. And you might be in that category of people who are not getting bonuses. And that might not even be something that you think about. But if they're making like 8%, a 10% bonus per year, you could be missing out on, let's say like 7,000 bucks a year. And so let's add that to your total compensation. Let's say you're making, you know, 70,000 and they're making 85,000. Well, with the 10% bonus, you would be making 77,000, right? And they're going to be making close to like 90, gosh, give me a second, like 92,000. So it makes a difference as their salary increases, as their bonus increases, et cetera. You know, that is going to play a part. And so knowing if somebody gets a bonus or doesn't get a bonus makes a difference. You know, it is a quote, unquote, a bonus, but that's part of your total compensation. So you should know about that. And then the last thing is within that conversation, you should be asking them what their official title is. And I would always be like, hey, you know, my title here is a junior data analyst. So I know that's, I know that's not your title, but I was hoping, you know, you know, continue that conversation. Because if I'm a junior data analyst, I'm making 76. And you are a data analyst two or three, and you're making 80, like 4,000 more, then they must really value me for whatever reason. And I may be able to figure that out why, or they're making like 120. And I have a lot of ways to go. And I understand that. I'm like, Hey, I need to stick with this company, because I can promote two or three times over the next five years and make a lot more money. And so I gave a kind of a bunch of random examples of why this might be helpful to you. It has been helpful to me a lot. I don't just do this to boast with other people. Like my coworkers are like, Oh, I'm making more than you. Like I'm doing a big, no, I genuinely come about it as like trying to be super humble, just like, here's how much I'm making. I don't care. It's more or less how compared to what you're making. I just want to get information. This is just a learning process for me. I'd love to know how much you make. And if you, if you go about that in a respectful way, in a humble way, you know, a lot of times it'll be very receiving of that. And so that is my secret. And again, do not be, do not be my, my old coworker, do not be my old coworker who waited a whole year to find that out, learn that information and then leave and quit. That's not the time to do it. The time to do it is like a couple months in three to six months in where you can do something about it. You can go to your boss and be like, Hey, I've been working here for six months, you know, at this year mark or, you know, I wouldn't recommend asking for a raise at six months. That's not a good advice. At the year mark, be like, Hey, I absolutely appreciate this experience. I have loved working here. I want to continue working here. I know that I'm being underpaid and I've been totally, or maybe that's not the best way to say it. I know my salary is somewhat low compared to other people who work here. And I feel like I've become much more valuable in my year that I've been here. I believe that a fair compensation for this position is X or Y or whatever, whatever you think it is. And you can have that conversation with your boss if you have that type of relationship or even if you don't, you don't want to work in a place that you're not getting compensated fairly. It's just not fun. So that is how I do it. That is my advice. I hope that that is helpful. We're going to go into a time of the show really soon. I just thought of another thing really soon where we basically shout out to our sponsors. That was the worst segue I've ever done in my life. I don't even know what to say about that guys. Shout out to my sponsors. The sponsor of the show is everyone over at Patreon. If you want to support me at Patreon, check out the link in the description. I always appreciate it. Max has gotten big because of you guys. You guys have been feeding them. I would not, well, it might be feeding them otherwise, but you guys are amazing. You guys are the best. Several people over at Patreon do my mentorship program, my one-on-one coaching. You guys are also amazing, just as amazing as all the other people who are supporting me. I appreciate you guys. On to probably even arguably a better segment of the show, which is the question of the week. I have it right here, and let's read it together. This is from Shareabangla. I am learning data analysis with Python, Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib and Seaborne. Do these people get paid the similar amount or are they different since they are more technical? Please share some thoughts, thanks in advance. I think this is a really good question. I genuinely do. What I have to say on this is, in general, the answer is going to be yes, but there is a lot to this question more than just a yes or no answer. The first thing you need to know is, if everybody uses Python, you are probably going to get paid similarly. If every job that you are looking at uses Python, they are probably going to be similar. Let's compare this, though, to a job that uses Tableau versus Python. It depends on what the company values. If they value someone who knows Tableau really well, they are going to pay them well. If this company values someone who uses Python really well, they are going to pay you fairly. They might pay you the same. It just doesn't matter if you know Tableau or Python. What I think it would be valuable is that a company where they value other things and they say, if you know Python, that would be really helpful. Then you come in and you know Python very well, and they are bound to pay you more. Basically, if it is expected of you to know Python at this job, or it is expected of you to know Power BI or all these other data visualization tools, they probably are going to pay you about the same. The end product is normally the same. It is a visualization. It just depends on the company. Will it, can it make you more? Absolutely. I know personally that when I learned Python and I implemented it at my company after getting that, I started as a junior data analyst, I started implementing things with Python that they had never done before, and showing them things that they had never done before. I showed that my skills were huge benefit to the team. I believe that that genuinely did help me in my career and make more money. I fully believe that Python is amazing. You should absolutely learn it at some point in your career if you want to make more money. I think it can make you more money. It just depends on the company. It depends on what they value. It depends on if that company, if everybody uses Python, they might pay you the same. Over here at this company, if everyone uses Tableau and then you come in and you know Tableau and Python, you might make more money than the people who just know Tableau. Again, it just is very company specific. But again, I'm trying to, I want to, I'm trying to be as candid as I can. I think it does help. I think it does help. I think you can make more money because of it. We are coming to my favorite. You know what time it is. It is the word. What is it? Word of the week? I don't even know what the segment is called. I don't know if it even has a title for this segment. I genuinely just, it's like, if you made it to the end of the show, here's what you put in the comment below. That rhymed. I'm going to use it. That's a tagline right there. If you made it to the end of the show, put this in the chat below. You know that we are keeping it vegetable based over here. And this vegetable is, it's incredible. It is in some of my favorite dishes of all time. It is one of the most utilized and well respected vegetables that I know of. It comes in many beautiful forms. No, it's not the potato. It is the tomato. I'm talking sauces. I'm talking stews. Italian. Italian food is my favorite. I was going to go on to more other types of dishes that use tomatoes, but I just blanked to be honest. If you made it all the way to the end in the description, put tomato. And if you, if you are still listening for whatever reason, God bless your heart. If you are still listening, tell me what dish you like that has tomatoes in it the most. I will be the first to go. I am a sucker for lasagna. It is my absolute favorite dish in the entire world. I absolutely love it. So tell me your favorite dish. If you have ingredients, a recipe link, my wife is a cook and I will give it to her. And if she makes it, I will post it on the YouTube community. I'm not joking about that. 100%. I promise you. So there you go. That is our show for the day. Thank you so much for joining me. I genuinely appreciate it. I love that you guys watch and listen and, you know, however you consume this content, it makes my every single time somebody comments on it, it just absolutely makes me smile. I promise you. YouTube is, is a cool, cool place. Thank you for watching. You guys are fantastic. I hope that this was beneficial to you in some way and not nauseating like it can be for some people. So again, thank you. You guys are fantastic. I appreciate you. Have a wonderful week. I will see you next week, next week's episode and goodbye.