Salaries at it-agile

There are some discussions about open salaries coming up. Sometimes it-agile is mentioned but I think we never published what we are doing. So, here we come (we are about 30 people at it-agile).

Fixed salaries

We have fixed salary levels (roughly 9% difference from level to level).

Transparent salaries

These salary levels are transparent within it-agile and everybody at it-agile knows who is at which salary level.

No positions

We have no fixed positions at it-agile, just roles. Therefore the salary is not bound to a position. In principle everybody could „climb“ to the highest salary level.

Setting the salary level

We experiment a lot with the process to find the appropriate salary level for the it-agile people. What we have done (and dismissed) in the past:

• The CEO sets the salary of each colleague (except himself).
• A group of senior people set the salary of each colleague.
• The peergroup (a self selected group responsible for the personal development of a colleague) sets the salary of the colleague.
• The salary set is set by some kind of crowd voting.

The current state is: A group called „salary checkers“ (Gehaltschecker) that is elected by the it-agile colleagues sets the salaries of the colleagues and owns the process of finding the salary. Whenever a colleague want’s to get to the next salary level he is obligated to consult colleagues about his request. He has to select also critics for the consultation. When the colleague thinks the request is justified (based on the feedback he got during the consultation) he approaches the salary checkers with his request. The salary checkers check if the consultation was done properly and the feedback justifies the next salary level. If this is the case he is „promoted“.

We don’t have fixed criteria to determine the salary level. It’s more about: Where do I stand related to the colleagues below my salary level, to the colleagues at my current salary level und to the colleagues at the next higher salary level.

And the salary checkers still improve the process.