‘Why Hide Salaries?’: This Entrepreneur Says Pay Transparency Is Discipline, Not Morality

Ankur Warikoo has been challenging conventional views on money, and his recent post added fuel to the conversation. Having previously shared his driver’s salary publicly, he now discusses why money should never be considered a private matter and argues that keeping salaries confidential only fosters confusion and insecurity in the workplace.

His perspective on transparency is sparking wider debate on pay structures and why employees are often expected to remain silent about their earnings.

Ankur Warikoo recently shared on X that his approach to personal finance is rooted in openness and honesty. He has never hidden his financial matters, openly discussing his business income, investments, salary, and even missteps.

“There is a simple reason I found acceptance in the world of personal finance. Because I treated money as something that should never have been “personal” in the first place.”

“So I put my own numbers on the table. My business income. My investments. My performance. My salary. My mistakes. All of it shared, with brutal transparency,” he added.

He said that the belief in keeping money private is largely perpetuated by institutions that profit from such secrecy. He pointed to salaries as a prime example, suggesting that companies expend unnecessary effort to conceal pay information, even though, in reality, such details are often well-known informally among employees.

“Companies spend absurd amounts of energy hiding salaries, that everyone already knows. Because the truth is uncomfortable. Their salary decisions are often arbitrary,” he said.

He highlighted how a seemingly random 30 per cent salary increase at a competitor often triggers an equivalent counteroffer, accompanied by strict instructions not to disclose the figure to others. He described this practice not as true confidentiality, but rather as an inadequate system masquerading as company policy.

“I refused to play that game. At my startup, everyone's salary is public. Not because it sounds noble, but because it forces discipline,” he wrote.

He outlined his recruitment approach, explaining that no candidate is ever required to accept a pay cut, and previous salaries are not brought into the conversation. Instead, the focus is solely on the candidate’s expectations, with job roles benchmarked openly. Should a candidate’s expectations fall outside the company’s predetermined pay range, the offer is respectfully withdrawn; if they align, the candidate is provided with a clear explanation of how the salary figure was determined.

He concludes the post by saying, “Transparency is not a moral stance. It is a systems stance. If your foundations are weak, secrecy feels convenient. If your foundations are strong, secrecy becomes pointless.”

Highlighting his commitment to transparency, Warikoo had previously shared how much his driver makes in a month and how his salary has evolved. He had concluded that post by saying that he wants the driver’s salary to reach Rs 1 lakh per month in five to six years.