InnoGames' Decision to Reveal Employee Salaries

Employee compensation is often shrouded in secrecy, with staff frequently discouraged from discussing their pay, which can conceal pay disparities based on gender and race. In response to calls for greater transparency, German mobile games firm InnoGames has taken a significant step by publishing salary bands for several departments. The data, which includes junior, intermediate, senior, and elite staff members' pay, has been available internally since 2016 as part of the company's career models. By making this information public, InnoGames aims to promote fairness and open information sharing, allowing employees to discuss their pay with managers on an equal footing. However, the company has only released data for around 80% of its staff, excluding smaller departments where individual salaries might be revealed. Executive pay is also not included, due to the small number of people in these roles and the complexity of determining fair salary bands. InnoGames claims to have addressed pay disparities between men and women, and while it does not plan to regularly update its publicly released salary bands, the information will remain available through job ads. The company is in early discussions with the German video games trade association Game to potentially publish sector-wide salary data on a regular basis, aiming to keep the discussion on pay transparency alive.