Show Me Your Money

27 June 2012

Discussing salaries is one of the biggest taboos in the workplace. Everyone is curious about how much their workmates earn but would never dare to ask. Despite doing the exact same job, colleagues are more than likely to receive an entirely different pay amount each month.

Inspired by a real pay experiment from the 1950's, Show Me Your Money is a remarkable TV experiment where one of Britain's top bosses takes it upon himself to break the rules and encourage a more honest and open working environment. 

A routine team meeting takes everyone by surprise when Charlie Mullins, Managing Director of Pimlico Plumbers asks his whole workforce to reveal exactly how much they are paid. One by one, they must reveal their salary and pin it on the notice board for their workmates to see. Immediately this opens a Pandora's Box of emotional responses from anger and shock to guilt and resentment.

The reveal exposes huge pay discrepancies between workers doing the same jobs. The girls in the call centre soon discover the newest addition to their team Ben, earns £3k more than them; another staff member Mark is shocked and furious to discover he's on £9k less than his colleague. Meanwhile, Tina in the canteen can't believe how much her managers earn when she can barely make ends meet on her £14.5k salary. The whole situation creates a terrible atmosphere and not even the boss can offer an explanation to why the pay distribution is so different.

Once everyone's salaries are out in the open, there's no going back and Charlie challenges them to come up with a new pay scheme that's fairer for everyone. The underpaid workers want a raise but will need to persuade their higher paid colleagues to take a cut or come up with other imaginative ways to fund the pay rises. To tackle the issue, a ‘pay team' is formed featuring a nominated representative from each department. The representatives will air the grievances of employees who feel they've got a raw deal and flag up the biggest discrepancies by the salary reveal. They will then begin the process of negotiating a fairer system for all. They have their work cut out trying to convince well rewarded colleagues to budge on their pay but as an incentive to encourage them to be more generous, Charlie agrees to match anything his staff donates to the pay pot.

In a bid to encourage the higher paid workers and bosses to give up some of their salary to their lower paid colleagues, workers from different departments are paired together to understand what each other's job entails. They decide to give the tradesmen who earn up to £150k a taste of what it's really like to work in the call centre, and while they admit it is hard work, will it convince them to contribute to the pay gap? PR Manager Karl also insists he won't take a pay cut and instead asks for a £19k raise, but after doing a shift in the canteen and hearing how tough life is for Tina, will he change his mind? Those who work in the garage also attempt to brainstorm clever cost-cutting ways they can contribute to the pay pot without giving up any of their own annual salary.

Once negotiations and work swaps have taken place, the entire work force must vote on whether to implement the proposed redistribution of salaries and now with everyone being honest with each other, will the experiment result in a better and more productive working environment for Charlie and his staff at Pimlico Plumbers?

Production Company - Watershed TV