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The wage transparency case is gaining momentum. New York’s Pay Transparency Act will go into effect next month, requiring companies to disclose pay ranges for all job postings. Even though pay transparency is enforced in some countries (see California and Colorado state laws), revealing how much money you earn still seems taboo in most cases. A survey conducted by Salary.com earlier this year found that only one in four employees believe their employer is transparent about pay. At the same time, 45% of respondents said that they personally feel uncomfortable discussing their salary with others.
When is splitting your paycheck a smart move towards fairer pay, and when should you be careful? Here’s what you need to know about pay transparency and when you should and shouldn’t discuss pay with your co-workers.
First, you are allowed to share salary information
If you’re worried about being punished or retaliated for discussing your salary with co-workers, know that the sharing of salary information is protected by the National Labor Relations Act. However, despite the fact that employers cannot legally penalize employees for discussing wages with colleagues, the topic still seems to be taboo on an interpersonal level.
Ideally, pay transparency should be provided by companies rather than left to individual employees. Tanya Jenson, co-founder of compensation management platform beqom, writes in Forbes that employers have a responsibility to “ensure transparency” and “help employees understand the full scope of their compensation.” Assuming your employer isn’t taking the initiative here, you have every right to start a conversation with your colleagues on your own.
Reasons to share your salary
The central rationale for pay transparency is to give back power to workers and ensure fairer pay for all of you, especially those workers who have historically been unfairly compensated.
While pay transparency can help ensure that you and your co-workers are generally fairly compensated, personal disclosure of such information is easier said than done. “Sharing salary information with peers can give you more transparency about pay within your organization,” says Tony Frana, career manager at FlexJobs and Remote.co., Lifehacker. But it’s not always cut and dried. Frana notes that “Even if you know the dollar amount, you probably won’t know the full context that went into making this decision.”
Sharing information about your salary with colleagues is by no means unheard of, but it’s not the norm yet. Frana shared the results of one of the recent FlexJobs surveys, telling us that 42% of respondents discussed their salary with a colleague, while 58% did not. If your employer does not openly disclose salary information, here are a few reasons why you might want to start a conversation with your co-workers.
- Understand your value. You can negotiate a fairer wage for yourself if you know how much your colleagues are getting paid for the same job. And if you find that no one on your team is being paid competitively in your industry, you can make an informed decision to take collective action or leave the company entirely.
- Help colleagues realize their value. If you suspect that your employer is taking advantage of one of your colleagues, share your salary information to help them advocate for fairer pay.
When salaries are kept secret, your employer holds a bargaining chip against you and your colleagues. Pay transparency is a way to reclaim some power, both individually and collectively.
When Not to Share Your Salary
While pay transparency will help more workers in the long run, there are situations where you still need to be careful. As Frana pointed out, you can miss out on sensitive information that goes into someone’s salary number, such as differences in quality of experience presented on the desk during the hiring process.
Perhaps you are the type who gets furious when you find out that you earn less than one of your colleagues. If you’re passionate about payment transparency, some awkwardness won’t be enough to deter you. This won’t be true for everyone.
Be aware that other people in your position may feel disadvantaged or demoralized by the pay split, especially if the pay gap is based on race, gender, background, and so on. Make sure everyone agrees on a salary conversation before you risk demoralizing a colleague to the point of leaving the job entirely.
If you can’t get information about your co-workers, sites like Glassdoor and Salary.com come in handy for getting a ballpark figure on the proper remuneration in your field.
Be tactful in your salary disclosures
Before diving into the numbers exchange, consider having a broader discussion first. Open the door to a conversation with colleagues about why you think pay transparency is something you should all strive for. You can then tactfully move on to salary disclosure. Otherwise, you risk creating tension instead of strengthening solidarity.