LinkedIn is tapping into its data to bring you deeper insights regarding how much money you should be making. LinkedIn Salary is the business-oriented social network’s new tool that provides detailed information on the factors that impact your salary — from location to experience.
However, there is one catch: If you want to use LinkedIn Salary, you must first tell the platform how much you’re currently earning. LinkedIn promises that your salary data will be encrypted, and will remain separate from your identity and profile.
“Recruiters won’t be able to see your salary data, or access it in any way. In fact, no one will be able to see your salary data,” writes the company in its help section. “When you submit salary data, your input is encrypted with RSA-2048 technology. This helps us ensure that your information is stored securely and remains protected.”
LinkedIn Premium members, on the other hand, will have access to the tool without the need to provide their salary information.
Using bold visuals, the feature provides a full picture for your chosen job title, including a detailed distribution of base salary, and additional factors such as stock and annual bonus offered by certain industries.
You will also be able to view the top paying locations for the career you have specified, and see the number of job openings currently available there. The region you work in can have a major impact on your career, according to LinkedIn. For example, the company claims a registered nurse in Sacramento, California gets paid an average of 50 percent more than in New York City.
LinkedIn claims the tool can point out the educational requirements that will most benefit your earning potential, and tally how experience will change your income in a particular field. Additionally, you can access industry and company data — the latter will tell you how pay differs for jobs depending on company size.
“We hope to give professionals around the world access to salary data they can trust, so they can make more informed decisions on where to work, what to learn, and how to evolve their careers,” said Ryan Sandler, a product manager for LinkedIn, in a blog post.
LinkedIn will be hoping its Salary tool results in increased activity on its site, with more people applying for job openings, and following active employers — which all amounts to even more valuable data for the company.
At launch, LinkedIn Salary is available in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. on the platform’s desktop and mobile websites.
