That rarely asked question is at the heart of a website that threatens to break the British taboo over salary.

The payments to thousands of employees in leading companies are already on display at Glassdoor.com, which was set up in the United States two months ago. The founders of the site intend to add the salaries of British workers next week.

All the salary entries and company reviews written by current and former employees are anonymous, but they are vetted for accuracy. The key to the site’s growth is that to view the details users have to submit their own salary or review.

In its first two months the site has published more than 50,000 company reviews and salary reports from 80 countries. More than a thousand British-based employers have at least one review, but there are no British salaries because the site has not been configured to display these in pounds. Robert Hohman, co-founder and chief executive, told The Times that several thousand salary entries for British workers will be added to the site soon.

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