A friend of mine was gotten a job offer. The potential employer has told him that because the job needs to be filled ASAP he is willing to offer a buck and a half more than what the other employees get…but he is forbidden to discuss or compare his wage with the other employees. I could have sworn I read or heard somewhere that comparing wages is a legal right-am I correct about this, or not?
You are correct - it is illegal to forbid workers from discussing their salaries on the job (with some exceptions).
Whether or not it is a good idea is another question. If your friend has a probationary period at the start of a new job, the company could let him go without saying why.
But, in theory, your friend could introduce himself by saying “Hi, I’m Jim, I’m new to the company, and I am making more than you”.
Of course, maybe the company means he is being hired at a buck fifty more than the standard starting salary, and his co-workers are already making more than him. Or they are all being paid the same.
Regards,
Shodan
He has been TOLD that he is getting extra.
Was he shown payrolls to prove it? I very much doubt so!
Could very well be that he is being underpaid and they don’t want him to find out!
I was thinking that maybe every new employee was told this-Everybody earns more than everybody else! 
Yeah, it’s odd they would make such a specific statement to him in offering the job. A more reasonable approach would be to just tell him, “We don’t discuss salaries with our co-workers. I hope you understand this policy.” Even if they know it’s not legally enforceable, they would likely be successful a large percentage of the time using that argument.
But, I suppose in their haste and poor judgement, and attempt to garner loyalty in a conspiratorial way, they think it’s an incentive to tell him “your special, we’re going to pay you more! But keep it on the down low. tee hee.” In the end, it could just foster divisiveness in the workplace.
But really… who gets a new job and begins discussing their compensation details with co-workers?!? Is this maybe an hourly-wage earner thing? I know how I am compensated and my peers are under the same compensation plan. Each of us may have a different base salary and compensation/bonus targets commiserate to our experience, length of employment with the company, attainment goals, etc. But I’d never, ever in a million years, tell my co-worker exactly what those dollar figures are for me nor would I ever want them to disclose the same information to me or another peer. Hopefully your friend has the common sense to be aware of the problems they’ll create for themselves and for their manager if they discuss their compensation with their peers.
Problems like finding out that management pays Bob, who does the same job you do(but golfs with the boss on Sundays) a buck an hour more than you? Or the problem that arises when females average significantly less than males, or when African-Americans average less than Caucasians?
Edited to add: Wouldn’t you say that when management lies from the start, or makes demands that are illegal, something may be fishy?
Why not? My salary is public information (civil servant) - you could find out on Google in 30 seconds if you just knew my full name and employer. Same with my previous job (state university). I never minded, and I never had any problems.
It’s one of those things that’s pounded in your brain if you are a private sector employee - DON’T DISCUSS SALARY! Of course, it started with employers claiming they could fire you if you did, but now it’s just cultural norms. My feeling is that “fear of the unknown” is preventing a transition to transparency for the public sector.
Understandably, if a company took the public sector approach and published everyone’s pay, there would be a period of shock and bad feelings, but soon enough most everyone would get used to it. (I also suspect the employer would have to plan on making a LOT of salary adjustments as a result of such transparency. There would definitely have to be a robust change management approach in place.)
I worked for a large company that had a policy discouraging the discussion of compensation among employees. I do not remember the wording, but it was certainly frowned upon. I do not know what the laws were at that time (mid-1980s).
There are many people who take the opposite view that everybody’s compensation should be known to everyone in the company.
Apparently, the Federal law staing that management cannot restrict such discussions is 80 years old.
Cultural aversion to discussing wages (encouraged by employers) is a tool used to exploit workers.
A good friend of mine worked for IBM starting in the early 1970s. His pay was somewhat dependent on his performance. The company also encouraged employees to submit suggestions for improvements which led to bonuses. Discussing salaries was simply not done according to him. I think it was just part of the culture like the grey suits. So everyone kept submitting ideas and tried to get high customer ratings and each was smug in the thought that he was making more then the others.
The submitted ideas would expire in five years or something so some made a habit of keeping track of when certain ideas that had been adopted ran out and they would re submit them.
At some point this broke down as a few friends mentioned their salaries to each other and it snowballed among his division. They realized they were all being paid the same amount based on length of service.
Dennis
Well, to be fair, in a “turtles-all-the-way-down” way, employment is a tool used to exploit workers.
My advice to those reporting to me is that it isn’t forbidden, but not advisable to start comparing salaries. (Warning: pointless, meandering anecdote follows)
When I was a newly minted PhD, 1-2 years into my first real job at a small technology-driven division of a very large company, my desk was in a large cubicle (more of a bullpen, really) with two other engineers. One of the engineers had been working at the division for about 5 years (he had a masters).
So, one day we are kicking back talking about this and that, and the subject of management at the division came up. I don’t know how we got onto it, but we started talking about how well compensated the mangers were compared with us lowly engineers.
At one point, my colleague stated that my boss (a department manager) must make $XXK per year (It was the early 80’s but I don’t remember the figure now, maybe $50K?).
I tell him, no, he must make more than that.
He disagrees.
We go back and forth on this for a few minutes and then I get frustrated and blurt out “I know he makes more than that!”
So he challenges me “How can you know this?”
“Because I make more than that!”
It settled the argument, but things were never the same between us. (Apparently, he did not make anywhere near this salary)
Are you saying he had no right to have access to this information?
Before I reply, I’d like to understand where you get to “no right to know” as a statement that could in any way, possibly, logically, follow anything in my post? It will help me provide the most focused response.
It was illegal to prohibit it then, just as it is now, but I suspect many employers don’t know that. My previous employer was a law firm which had a “no discussing compensation” policy (though not one that handled labor and employment law).
Yeah, I’m in the same boat. Still, at my previous employer, it regularly came up that someone would get curious and start gossiping about how much so-and-so makes blah blah because they looked it up.
At my current employer, nobody seems to care. I don’t talk about how much I make, which is shit, because I’m probably in the top 75% of the entire organization, which means many of the people I’m around make shittier shit than I do.
Here is my advice to companies and managers.
You should be paying your people a market based salary/wage, based upon their role and their geographic market. Normally this will fall in a range which should allow you to make some differentiation based upon other factors, such as experience, capability, contributions, etc.
Some employees will cap out on their market range which will not permit them to receive raises, unless they are being promoted and taking on more responsibilities. Getting raises based upon tenure and length of service are not good practices, and will make your company less competitive.