Is pay transparency right for your company?
Why radical transparency about salaries can pay off
How radical transparency about salaries can pay off.
How much do you make? How much do you think your colleagues make?
Most of us feel uncomfortable discussing our salaries. We are afraid to find out we are underpaid. Or worry that someone might envy that we earn more than they do.
Organizations work very hard to make salaries opaque. Some argue this helps prevent potential infights. Though many think lack of transparency gives companies the upper-hand during salary negotiations.
Secrecy not only puts employees at a huge disadvantage. It also promotes speculation and a lack of trust. When people don’t know how they fare against others — they usually think the worst.
As Morela Hernandez, a researcher at the University of Virginia, said, “By keeping compensation secret, we might obscure structural inequalities and enable inequalities to persist.”
What would happen if we removed that secrecy? Wouldn’t it be better to spend more time working than speculating about …
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Demystify Culture to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.