Friday, June 01, 2012

Talking wages

According to a survey by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 19 percent of employees’ workplaces formally prohibit discussing wages and salaries, and another 31 percent said it’s discouraged. Doesn't it strike you as odd that employees have  this ban on "money talk". We've all heard it. "It's no one's business but yours what you make." But isn't it everyone's business what everyone else makes? People who are most harmed by not talking about compensation tend to be the employees themselves. It's in your employer's interest for employees not to share detils of their salaries. If an employee finds out that he or she is making far less than someone who does less, or that he or she, perhaps, is vastly underpaid in general, that employee may argue for a raise. In what other part of life do you go along with being forbidden such key information that's part and parcel of what you do? It also reminds us that there were inherent injustices in pay.

The Paycheck Fairness Act going through the Senate includes a provision that would make it illegal for companies to act against employees who talk about their salaries.


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