It is also a legal right you have in America.
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
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It’s true. We make salaries and wages public knowledge in our company so our people know we aren’t screwing them. Things are fine and our employees are very loyal.
Yea – information asymmetry benefits the side with the information. Who would have guessed?
I did the same thing with one of my colleagues. She was making about $15K less than me. I provided her insights into my performance metrics so that she could build a case to ask for more based on her performance. It’s important for us to support each other.
Does anyone actually follow the rules of not talking about pay? That’s one of the first things i start asking people when i start a job
Discussing salary is a federally protected right. I called out my HR VP for threatening me about this.
I was brainwashed into thinking we should not talk about wages. Big surprise it turned out later those employers were not treating us well.
HR here.
In the US, it’s 100% legal to discuss your wages with coworkers. (Just be sure you work for a covered employer, see article below) Just don’t be rude/obnoxious about it.
Your boss can give you a stern talking to but you cannot be punished for talking about wages.
If they threaten you, remind them that the National Labor Relations Board takes these cases seriously and would love to hear more.
https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/your-rights/your-rights-to-discuss-wages
If ever needed this article has the link to file a complaint.
If you like those rights thank a union!!
I worked with a coworker who didn’t do shit. We made the same salary. Should I ask for the same salary and drop down to not doing shit? Will it affect my standing during layoffs?
My boss once gave me a raise and asked me to keep it between us. I told him I understood where he was coming from, but it was illegal for him to say that to me, and I am allowed to talk about my pay with anyone I’d like. He just stared at me slackjawed as I walked out of the office.
It’s also a right where I live and I’m sure the rest of civilized society too. Can u guys finally admit that America is not the land of the free and do some thing about the right wing hyper capitalist nonsense that you all think is normal?
One of the main reasons to unionize
This is why I’m glad I’m in a union.
The first job I had after I got out of the Army was very hush-hush when it came to compensation. The first raise I received, my supervisor pulled me aside and told me very quietly. Come to find out about a year later that pay disparity was a big deal here and it was frowned upon to discuss salary.
I only realized there was a pay disparity because in the one year I worked there I was able to climb up the ladder a lot quicker that some folks who had been there a lot longer than me, and when they found out I was getting paid around the same as them and more than some of them, there was a big stink made. And because the company had kept hush-hush about pay, instead of those few employees being upset with the company, they were instead upset with me.
Now he can go back and say: “I hear that she got a raise. Where’s my raise?” 😘.
It’s a joke. I agree with the moral of the story.
overly agreeable people generally make less in their jobs – they tend not to ask for salary increases, new jobs, etc. Agreeableness is good in some situations but not as much a profession.
I’ve been actively doing this for two teammates. It’s easy and we should do it. They both deserve it.
Sure, but like every other right you have at work, it really doesn’t mean anything because they can fire you for no reason.
I mean, the raise obviously comes out of a budget. So if that percentage of the budget goes to a coworker instead of you, it does hurt you doesn’t it?
Mostly benefits them but not only
It’s a legal right – for now.
Equal pay for equal effort and results
Salaries are not a single numerical point, they are set in ranges. The company may make offers based on experience, education or even hiring priority at that time. People get hired at different times and have seniority differences. Some candidates are better at negotiating too. Just because you do the same job doe NOT mean you will necessarily make the same pay and none of that has anything to do with discrimination.
I am NOT saying discrimination on other factors does not exist, it does, but just because you don’t make the samae as a co-worker does not, by itself, indicate any discrimination. Consider all the other factors first before making accusations.
At least until January
I wonder how mad he was when she said no
A woman and I were let go from our jobs when the company went under. She had been there for years before me and was effectively my boss.
Another company comes around and hires us on to fill the vacuum the last company left, and we learned that she was going to get paid 5K less than me for the same job.
Neither of us are with that company anymore.
It’s also not legal for employers to tell you to not discuss your salaries.
99.9% of people are utter morons and think they should keep their salary private. I work for the government and my salary is 100% public information anyone can find out. Only the employer benefits from not making salaries known.
This just isn’t true….a company will have reduced funds after giving you a raise…that’s if they have the funds to do so. You’re removing cash from the company, it limits their options in the future.
Before all the police come arrest me for this statement, this isn’t a knock on the whole post besides disagreeing with the last statement. This is just simply wrong.
On the other hand, my department has precisely $840k for salaries this year for 9 people.
A bigger raise for someone else is a smaller one for you. I don’t get to just find more money.
Not sharing info is the most anti-competitive/anti-freemarket thing in the world.
The whole justification for free markets and capitalism is that those markets are “efficient”, but that efficiency depends on having perfect information. Without it, any informational asymmetry will lead to dead weight losses because it prevents true preferences from being revealed.
“Only” is misused here.
Not discussing your salary prevents comparing yourself to others and feeling downput when you learn you are making less. Don’t confuse societal conventions for the fruits of corporate greed.
It’s immaterial, but the rule against not dating your coworkers also mainly helps the corporation.
A dinner date is never going to be as effective at identifying all of a candidate’s personal flaws as working with them. If you’re smart, you’re only going to be there for 18 months anyway.
Legal here.
For now.
I have a friend who manages other ppls money and he said how much you earn is possible the most private information you can have. I don’t share that stuff on his advice.
Thoughts?
Folks in the US: it is illegal for your employer to forbid you from discussing your wages. It is also illegal to fire or punish you for discussing your wages. If that happens to you, call around for employment attorneys in your state. Many will work for a percentage of what the court awards to you. Your local state department of labor will also be able to refer you to an employment attorney.
It could’ve been you signed on at that pay initially but he negotiated it. He could’ve had more experience initially than you. Many things besides your gender. You took the easiest possible option to blame and used that. Sad.
I’m sure everyone else has too, but directly being told “discussing salary is a fireable offense” stunned me.
Please fire me for that. I’ll have my lawyer contact you.
This happened to me at best buy. A fellow vet was hired, and we always talked. Brought up pay, and he mentioned he was getting paid substantially more than me, despite being just hired. I complained, told my boss I was going to discuss my legal options. Within 24 hours, an email from corporate was sent out stating “we discovered an irregularity in pay, horrible mistake, some people are going to be getting raises to make up for this completely innocent mistake”.
Yeah, we discussed our pay a lot after that.
Sadly, not for long, I’d bet.
When I was young in engineering I had a mentor who was in his early 60s. The company was under hard times and announced no raises.
Then the company gave out raises to a select few and I was one of them. They gave me a 10% raise to retain me and stop me from job hopping, which was awesome but I still wasn’t making a ton of money.
We were an aerospace outsourcing company that had a business model where young engineers were paid like interns and the senior engineers were paid decent, and the senior engineers would get a large team of young engineers to keep costs low.
I told him about my raise and he made my life hell there until I left. Complained to hr etc.
TLDR be careful who you talk to.
Its true so that everyone knows
What is this legal right?
See men AND WOMEN working together can make demands from these corporations.
Had an employer once tell me it was against company policy to discuss salary. We did anyway. Found out we were all being nickel and dimed.