Is pay secrecy still a thing in the 21st Century - and how could it affect your business

So thoughts........there are positives for workers understanding each others salaries:

✳ It can help to close wage gaps that exist between genders and minorities at the hiring step

✳ It will make you more equipped when negotiating pay rises

Companies can often foster cultures that discourage the sharing of salary information and at 20% of companies, according to the IWPR report (study in America), there are actual gag orders

So why do some companies embrace the pay secrecy:

✴ Companies are motivated to promote pay secrecy, either covertly or overtly, because it often saves them money.

✴ It can mean that new hires don't know what kind of a salary is reasonable for their role – and some may end up receiving lower pay as a result.

✴ Potentially, it can also affect workers already on the career ladder; if people aren't aware they're underpaid in comparison to their colleagues, they're less likely to ask for – or have the leverage to secure – large pay rises.

Thankfully in the UK, Norway and Australia for example, firms are mandated to publish salary ranges or ratios; in the UK it is companies with 250 or more employees.

For the UK:

✅ In 2020, the gap among full-time employees fell to 7.4%, from 9.0% in 2019.

✅ Among all employees it fell to 15.5%, from 17.4% in 2019.

#payequity #paysecrecy #employees #hiringtoptalent #recruitment