Ricardo Semler on Salaries

Lessons on how to set boundaries with paying employees.

I found this summary concise and appropriate. The kind of conversation that can be held with a clear and level playing field.

We set salaries like this:

A lot of our people belong to unions, and they negotiate their salaries collectively. Everyone else’s salary involves an element of self-determination.

Once or twice a year, we order salary market survey’s and pass them out. We say to people, “Figure out where you stand on this thing. You know what you do, you know what everyone else in the company makes, you know what your friends in other companies make, you know what you need, you know what’s fair.  Come back on Monday and tell us what to pay you.”

When people ask for too little, we give it to them. By and by, they figure it out and ask for more. When they ask for too much, we give that to them too – at least for the first year. Then, if we don’t feel they’re worth the money, we sit down with them and say, “Look, you make x amount of money, and we don’t think you’re making x amount of contribution. So either we find something else for you to do, or we don’t have a job for you any more. But with half a dozen exceptions, our people have always named salaries we could live with.

We do a similar thing with titles. Counsellors are counsellors, and partners are partners; these titles are always the same. But with coordinators, it’s not quite so easy. Job titles still mean too much to many people. So we tell coordinators to make up their own titles. They know what signals they need to send inside and outside the company. If they want “Procurement Manager,” that’s fine. And if they want “Grand Panjandrum of Imperial Supplies,” that’s fine too.

About the Author

Jeremiah Josey is Chairman of MECi Group and a systems architect specialising in energy infrastructure, advanced technology, and large-scale industrial projects. He bridges visionary thinking—from artificial intelligence and sociocratic governance to ancient symbolism and climate science—with hands-on execution across China, the Middle East, including Türkiye, the Arab states and Iran, as well as Australia. Some of his initiatives include IPRI.Tech and The Thorium Network. He helps principals and decision-makers make complex, politically sensitive projects bankable and executable. His approach combines data-driven clarity, consent-based systems design, and deep structural insight to drive rapid growth, operational excellence, and transformative impact. Learn more at MECi-Group.com