LinkedIn wants to help you earn more money
The professional network adds a new feature designed to help its members reach their full earning potential.
LinkedIn can now show how your salary stacks up against what others in your field earn.
The professional network launched a new Salary feature Wednesday with the aim of letting its 460 million members maximize their earning potential. The feature lets you compare your salary with people in similar jobs and learn how experience, education level and location may -- or may not -- play a factor.
Earlier this year, LinkedIn emailed members asking them to anonymously disclose their salaries, said Ryan Sandler, a product manager. In exchange, they were given insight into what peers in their fields are making. For example, a software engineer with a master's degree may not earn more money than someone without one. More than a million salaries were collected, Sandler said.
"There are options our members can potentially take to make more money, whether it is finding a new job, getting another degree, learning new skills or even relocating," he said. "We want to help them understand what decisions they can make now to help increase their salaries down the line."
LinkedIn's salary feature arrives two weeks after competing job-search site Glassdoor released a similar product called Know Your Worth. For LinkedIn, this is the latest in a series of product releases, including an update of its popular Skills and Endorsements feature and another, Open Candidates, that allows members to discreetly notify recruiters they're job hunting without their current employer finding out.
LinkedIn's new Salary feature aims to help members reach their full earning potential.
The updates come nearly five months after LinkedIn announced it will be acquired by Microsoft for $26.2 billion.
LinkedIn members using the salary feature can enter how much they make to compare if they're on the same pay scale with their peers. The feature discovered registered nurses in Sacramento are paid an average of 50 percent more than those in New York City, Sandler said.
"That's not a cost of living thing," he said, noting New York is one of the most expensive places to live in the US. "It's more of a supply and demand and need in Sacramento," Sandler said.
Members' salary information is encrypted and remains private, he said, noting that LinkedIn is comparing its findings with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to ensure its accuracy.
Other examples of what LinkedIn has discovered include that marketing directors with a master's degree in business administration often see larger salary increases than those without and that health care is among the highest-paying industries for sales representatives.
The feature is available to LinkedIn members in the US, UK and Canada and is expected to roll out worldwide next year.