PAY SECRECY
Even with today’s rapidly progressing society, there still exists a certain stigma towards the topic of salary or compensation. Employees have taken on what is called “pay secrecy” that breeds the issue of “pay communication”. In this article, the author highlights two aspects that further elaborate this matter, namely organisational restriction and employee restriction.
A female worker believes, with all the current press stories, that she is unfairly underpaid compared with her male colleagues. She asks one what he is paid and he “confesses honestly” his full package. She becomes enraged and goes public. His employer takes disciplinary action against the man because he has signed an employment contract which prohibits employees from discussing their pay terms with others. Shocked to the core, he decides to sue his employer. Time for lawyers to rub their hands! A curious case of pay secrecy.
Pay communication refers to if, when, how, and which pay information (pay ranges, raises, averages, ect.) is communicated to employees and even the general public.
The issue here is called Pay communication refers to if, when, how, and which pay information (pay ranges, raises, averages, individual pay packages, and/or the entire pay structure) is communicated to employees and even the general public. Both of the extremes of pay communication practices (pay secrecy and pay openness) consist of two aspects: organisational restriction and employee restriction. Organisational restriction refers to the amount of pay
