Hello Community,
Personally, I don’t think publishing everybody’s salary or earnings online is a good idea at all, on paper, it might sound smart because people will say things like, Oh, it will expose corruption, or It will help people know who is doing illegal things, but once you really think about it, the disadvantages might actually outweigh the advantages.
First of all, money is a personal thing, not everything about someone’s life needs to become public information,
Imagine waking up one morning and everybody around you suddenly knows exactly how much you earn every month, neighbours, friends, extended family, random people online, honestly, that sounds stressful.
Especially in a country like Nigeria where people already put too much pressure on each other financially.
The moment people know your salary, expectations will change immediately. Some family members will start calculating your money for you, Friends might assume you should always pay for things, even people you barely talk to can suddenly start acting entitled to your money because after all, you earn well.
And if your salary is small, that one comes with another kind of pressure entirely, people may start looking down on others because of what they earn, it can create unnecessary embarrassment and comparison, some people are already struggling mentally with the pressure of life, now imagine adding public salary comparisons on top of it.
Another thing is security.
Let’s be honest, publishing people’s earnings publicly can actually make crime worse instead of reducing it, If criminals know exactly who earns a lot and who does not, you think that’s safe? In a place where kidnapping and fraud already exist, that kind of information can become dangerous very quickly.
Now, I understand the argument people make about transparency, especially for government officials and public office holders, that one is different. If someone is handling public funds or working in government, I actually think there should be some level of transparency there, because if a politician is officially earning one amount but suddenly living like a billionaire overnight, people have the right to ask questions.
But for regular workers and everyday people? I don’t think making their earnings public helps anybody.
For employers too, this kind of thing can create serious tension in workplaces , once salaries are exposed, comparisons will naturally happen, some workers may feel cheated if they discover someone else earns more than them, even when there may be reasons behind it like experience or responsibilities, instead of focusing on work, the environment can become full of resentment and competition.
At the same time though, I do think companies should be fair with salaries. Some employers take advantage of secrecy to underpay workers unfairly, and that is not right either, so there should still be accountability and fairness internally, just not necessarily public exposure for the whole world to see.
Honestly, I think if everyone’s salary became public, a lot of people would simply suffer emotionally, mentally, and socially from it, there would be more pressure, more judgment, more fake lifestyles, and more unnecessary competition.
People already tie too much value to money in society, some people respect you more once they think you are rich and ignore you when they think you are struggling, publishing salaries publicly might only make that mindset worse.
At the end of the day, I believe transparency is important in certain places, especially where public money is involved, But when it comes to private individuals and workers, people deserve some level of privacy.
Not everything needs to become public content.
Sometimes peace of mind is worth more than public transparency.
