Question

Do you think it is proper for a company to force employees not to discuss how much each employee is getting paid? Is pay secrecy legal? Can an employer impose pay secrecy? Other than possible causing discontent among employees, what other consequences you think may result if other employees found out what other employees were making?

Answer 1

• Most employees are legally allowed to discuss their salaries under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, even if they sign a nondisclosure agreement. The act prohibits employers from imposing or even implying pay secrecy policies.
• In 2015, California governor Jerry Brown signed the California Equal Pay Act, which further protects against workplace discrimination and gender pay disparity. Under the act, employees have the absolute right to discuss their own wages or the wages of others (with the exception of payroll managers). Employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees who discuss their salaries or encourage coworkers to do the same.

As you can see, if employees band together to simply share information on their own terms, there's little employers can do to stop them without legal repercussions. However, there are still good reasons not to jump into a full public-salary policy without careful consideration.