

Salary discussion often not what employers want


How much control can employers actually exercise over workers who want to discuss money matters?

That depends on who's doing the discussing, says Allan Weitzman, a lawyer and partner at law firm Proskauer Rose.

Rank-and-file workers are guaranteed by law the right to compare wages, he says.

"Any rules that prohibit discussions about salaries is a violation of the National Labor Relations Act," Weitzman said. "They have to be able to share the information with each other and with union organizers so they can decide whether it's in their best interest to join a union and bargain."

But the rules are different for supervisors, who are at the mercy of their employers' rules and can even be fired for revealing their salaries, he says.

"A company can do whatever it wants," Weitzman says. "If you're a supervisor or a manager, the company can make it a condition of employment that you agree in advance not to discuss your salary."

Ellen Bravo, director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women, says employers who don't want workers comparing notes often benefit from Americans' reluctance to reveal their financial positions.

"I think it's quite common to tell people: `Don't talk money,'" Bravo says. "It's improper. It's bad etiquette. Many people are brought up that you don't talk about money, even with people you care about."

Bravo advises employees to discuss their salaries openly if they can. And if their company bans those revelations, she suggests an alternative: Gather a group of colleagues who perform the same job as you. Give everyone a piece of paper on which to scribble their salaries--without adding their names. Toss the scraps into a hat and then pluck them out to learn the range of co-workers' salaries.

The lessons: Some workers had given up on pay increases when their bosses insisted that the company couldn't afford to give anyone raises that year. The hat drill showed that other employees had, in fact, won raises.

Others had inwardly gloated because their employers said, "We're giving you more this year, but don't tell anyone." They discovered that their salaries actually weren't any higher than anyone else's.

Companies that treat their employees equitably shouldn't need to discourage workers from learning how they stack up against their peers, Bravo says.

"Employers ought to have rational justifications for their salary scale," she said.

"It ought to be obvious to someone else, so they don't have a perception that it's because of favoritism or gender or race. Unfortunately, many people's pay is based either on, `What's the least I can get away with?' on the part of the employer or `What did you make at your last job?'"

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