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Woman fired for making $130,000 salary faux pas

A woman hoping to help others and advocate for salary transparency on her social media platforms has been fired due to the content she shared on her TikTok.

Just a few weeks ago, Lexi Larson got a job in the tech industry in the US and she started talking about how much she was earning on TikTok.

In one video, Ms Larson explains how her salary jumped from US$70,000 to US$90,000 (A$130,000). Sharing budgeting advice with her followers, she explained that the pay rise equalled a fortnightly boost of US$449 to her bank account

Eventually, her employer found her account and did not like the content.

In a video explaining how she got fired, Ms Larson said her employer – which she did not name – spoke to her about her TikTok content.

Lexi Larson was fired from her job after she used her platform to talk about pay transparency. Source: TikTok/itslexilarson
Lexi Larson was fired from her job after she used her platform to talk about pay transparency. Source: TikTok/itslexilarson

She said after her employer found her TikTok account, she removed a few of the videos out of fear the company would be mad at her.

However, two days later she was fired.

"They ended up firing me because they said me having this account was a security concern because I could post something private about the company on my TikTok account," she explained.

She asked if she had broken any company policies by posting online, or shared anything that could be deemed a security concern.

The company said she hadn't, but she could in the future.

Woman gets another job after being fired

Ms Larson said she was able to go back to her old workplace after being let go by the tech company. This company is already aware of her TikTok and is fine with her posting content.

She said after she got fired, she had a lot of anxiety, but that she was "extremely lucky" that her previous employer "is really amazing".

"I called my manager like an hour after I got fired, like sobbing, and he actually was able to get me my job back," she said.

Luckily Lexi Larson was able to get a job after she was fired. Source: TikTok/itslexilarson
Luckily Lexi Larson was able to get a job after she was fired. Source: TikTok/itslexilarson

What is pay transparency?

Recruitment company Hays explains salary transparency allows employees to compare their salary to their colleagues' salaries, to ensure they are being paid fairly. This can be internal, external or both.

"Some organisations opt for full pay transparency, where the salary for each role is available. Others elect to reveal partial salary information, such as a salary range for each role," Hays explained.

In a statement to The Daily Dot, Ms Larson said she had seen others discuss their pay on TikTok and that inspired her to do the same.

“I post videos about my income/budgeting/personal finances because I think salary transparency is important, and it’s one of the main ways we can work on closing the wage gap," she said.

"I found similar videos from creators extremely helpful in my own career, and I wanted to do the same for other people. There are employers who are supportive of that, and there are others who unfortunately are not.”

A study from the HEC Paris Business School found there are pros and cons to pay transparency.

The study found if companies are open about what employees are getting paid, the gender pay gap could decrease by 50 per cent. However, it also found it can "weaken performance".

“Our evidence showed that pay transparency causes significant increases in both the equity and equality of pay, and significant and sizeable reductions in the link between pay and individually measured performance,” Tomasz Obloj, associate professor at HEC Paris, told Yahoo Money.

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