Salary Uproar

It’s been all over media-related news: The Michigan State Salary Database.

While this level of detail has always been publicly available, it’s never before been so easy to look up someone’s salary information. The site was so popular that the day it went up, so many visitors hit it that the server crashed. The comments have hit 60 pages now.

Quote :

You pathetic small time reporters at the LSJ should be ashamed.

God forbid you did some actual reporting on real news instead of releasing the personal information of everyday ordinary people to everyone on the planet.

How about using the Freedom of Information Act to report on the MSP debacle and the dreadful plans they have in store for the Triangle Property?

. . .

Quote :

Working in the public sector I have no problem with my salary being posted however I would rather have the public aware of what we do in conjunction with what we earn. My job includes calls evenings, nights, early mornings and weekends - with no compensation, very few in my office take their full lunch periods-most take none or eat at the desk as they continue to work , no one takes the allowed breaks, at 5 there is often a number of employees still working and again with no compensation. We drive our own vehicles and take the very expensive hit on our wallets because the budget has resulted in our department forbidding other than the absolutely mandatory travel which inhibits our ability to monitor our charges which in turn becomes a public safety issue.

. . .

For the most part, the response seems displeased, but most of the comments I read were not those of journalists or publishers, but the state employees and private citizens.

While the Michigan database seems to be stirring up a hornet’s nest, it is worth noting that it’s not the first state to have such a database online. Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, South Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia have similar databases hosted by media outlets. Georgia and Iowa even host the same function on the state website.

At first, I was mystified as to why no one has even made such a fuss about such postings before, but then I started reading around… In Massachusetts, the site also crashed, after over three million page views in a single day. Death threats were issued in response to the listing, and "It's got the whole city talking and yapping."

What are your thoughts?