Germany-based video games company InnoGames shared the salary bands of its employees publicly. The company has been working toward this goal since 2016 per the words of InnoGames’ director of human resources Dr. Andreas Lieb.
The Hamburg-based company has nearly 500 employees according to its LinkedIn page, and they openly shared the salary bands of nearly 80% of the company’s workforce. InnoGames didn’t include the salaries of smaller departments, as that could easily lead to guessing how much specific people earn per year.
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InnoGames’ COO Michael Zillmer says salary transparency is a matter of fairness, both towards the company’s employees and applicants. Zillmer added:
“That is why we have decided to share this information publicly, after initially making it available internally last year. I hope that this will motivate other game companies to join us and help us debunk the long-standing misconception that our industry pays people poorly.”
The COO spoke to PocketGamer and explained that the decision to go transparent with the salary bands wasn’t a smooth ride, but it comes with a good purpose, hence worth the effort. Zillmer went on to say female applications will especially benefit from this initiative as the company believes in equal pay and acts accordingly.
Zillmer believes a new hire who learns that they earn less than an equally qualified colleague may become toxic and disenfranchised; he adds that this new move will eliminate such possible outcomes.
Dr. Andreas Lieb also agrees with Zillmer’s comments and adds the following:
“We expect several positive effects from our publication, including lower dropout rates in the application process and greater attractiveness for talent from outside the games industry. We are also sending a clear signal to potential female applicants that pay gaps don’t exist at InnoGames. The bottom line is that this is a ‘win-win-win’ situation.
“The company, our employees, and current and future applicants all stand to benefit from this disclosure. We appreciate that salaries can be a very delicate topic, and we are aware that the decision to publish our bands comes with a certain level of risk, but we firmly believe this is the right move for both InnoGames and the industry.”
You can see the shared salary bands by InnoGames down below.
