London firm revamps pay by letting staff set salaries

Against a backdrop in Britain of gender pay gaps and ongoing disputes over executives' earnings, employees at one London company are helping each other set salaries.

Betting firm Smarkets has adopted a radical pay transparency policy, through which staff can see colleagues' salaries and have pay rise requests endorsed by peers.

"Most people get what they ask for," said Angeline Mulet-Marquis, a software engineer at Smarkets.

In a company where increases of 10 to 30 percent are common, Mulet-Marquis received the 12 percent more she asked for -- as all of her colleagues could see on the internal website.

Recently graduated engineers are paid a salary of around £45,000 ($63,080, 51,330 euros) at Smarkets, which rises to six-figure salaries for highly qualified senior engineers. Despite London's reputation as a hub for start-ups and a global business centre, such openness about salaries is rare in the British capital.

Within view of the city's famous Tower Bridge, the Smarkets office boasts added perks such as a team of chefs to make lunch each day, a foosball table and video games to keep staff happy.

Susana Pinto oversees Smarkets' biannual pay reviews, through which an employee asks around five peers for feedback and a suggested pay increase that they can take forward.

"It's not just a matter of saying, 'Hey, I think you're great!' It's actually going to be probed," Pinto said of the feedback provided.

Further talks and comparisons to industry data determine the final pay increase, although if the employee is not happy they can set their own salary.

Such a move is said to be rare, however, as employees are well aware they will have to face their colleagues who will know they have gone against their advice.

"The good thing about the fact that our salaries are transparent is that they, by default, keep the company fair," said Pinto.

This extends to stamping out alleged gender inequality which has marred some British companies including the BBC.

The broadcaster was forced last year to disclose the salaries of some of its top staff, showing men made up 12 of the 14 highest-paid posts and leading to complaints of unequal pay for the same work.

Software engineer Caglar Senel said allowing employees to see each other's salaries is a way through which companies can ensure equal pay.

"It would be super obvious that the women in the company is getting this much amount of money, and the guys are getting this much amount of money, so I think that would be helpful," he said.

Despite the success of pay transparency at Smarkets, which has around 100 employees, a number of staff said they were unsure the same approach would work for large companies or different industries.