Question

Should employees be involved in pay decisions and should they know what other employees earn (pay secrecy)? Explain if this is a good policy or not?

Find an outside, credible article written within the last 5 years that supports your position. Cite your source using proper APA citation

Answer 1

Pay secrecy is the hot topic in recent years especially after the highlights of the gender wage gap issue in the workplace. Employees are not allowed to discuss their salary with their co-workers in office to protect the privacy of the salary structure of the workers of any company. Pay secrecy is a common workplace policy that shut down the discussion about the salary structure in the office.

However, according to the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, talking about salary is legal in the American workplace even if any employees have signed non-disclosure agreement in the office. The federal and state laws of America encourage the employees to discuss the wage and salary structure with their co-workers as it creates more transparency in the payment process. This would be beneficial especially for the women because open discussion helps them to spot the discrepancy in the salary structure so they can call for an action regarding this matter.

The employers have no rights to prohibit their employees from discussing the wages of their own. But it is illegal when an employee discloses the payroll and salary packages without any permission from the higher authority.

Despite the legal permission, many employers have still implemented the pay secrecy policy in their offices to discourage their employees about the salary discussion which is technically illegal and unethical from the side of the employers as do not follow the human rights lawsuits. Furthermore, it could be a hint of discrimination of the wage based on age, race, gender or demographic issues.

Thus, it can be said that pay secrecy is not a good policy for any company as it prevents transparency about wages.

Reference:

Kim, M. (2015). Pay secrecy and the gender wage gap in the United States. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 54(4), 648-667.       

Moriarty, J. (2018). Against pay secrecy. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 35(4), 689-704.

Trotter, R. G., Zacur, S. R., & Stickney, L. T. (2017). The new age of pay transparency. Business Horizons, 60(4), 529-539.

Answer 2

Pay secrecy is the hot topic in recent years especially after the highlights of the gender wage gap issue in the workplace. Employees are not allowed to discuss their salary with their co-workers in office to protect the privacy of the salary structure of the workers of any company. Pay secrecy is a common workplace policy that shut down the discussion about the salary structure in the office.

However, according to the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, talking about salary is legal in the American workplace even if any employees have signed non-disclosure agreement in the office. The federal and state laws of America encourage the employees to discuss the wage and salary structure with their co-workers as it creates more transparency in the payment process. This would be beneficial especially for the women because open discussion helps them to spot the discrepancy in the salary structure so they can call for an action regarding this matter.

The employers have no rights to prohibit their employees from discussing the wages of their own. But it is illegal when an employee discloses the payroll and salary packages without any permission from the higher authority.

Despite the legal permission, many employers have still implemented the pay secrecy policy in their offices to discourage their employees about the salary discussion which is technically illegal and unethical from the side of the employers as do not follow the human rights lawsuits. Furthermore, it could be a hint of discrimination of the wage based on age, race, gender or demographic issues.

Thus, it can be said that pay secrecy is not a good policy for any company as it prevents transparency about wages.

Reference:

Kim, M. (2015). Pay secrecy and the gender wage gap in the United States. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 54(4), 648-667.       

Moriarty, J. (2018). Against pay secrecy. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 35(4), 689-704.

Trotter, R. G., Zacur, S. R., & Stickney, L. T. (2017). The new age of pay transparency. Business Horizons, 60(4), 529-539.