Every place I've ever worked I've been told, either one-on-one or with a group of my fellow workers, "It's nobody's business how much you earn." The threat has been implied, but unmistakeable. Of course, there is no legal way they could enforce that, but the implication has always been perfectly clear that they would make your life miserable if you "blabbed".

Granted, in the corporate world, the pressure is subtle and understated, they figure you've been indoctrinated already. But when you're punching a time clock, it's blatant and up front. Employers pay what ever they need to get good people, but they also pay as little as they can get away with. Sometimes they get losers that aren't quite worth the trouble to fire them, or they score superworkers for a song. The employees can't negotiate effectively because they don't have all the facts.

If someone looks like he won't leave and he is doing a good job, they will not give him a raise until they absolutely have to. Other people they have to pay an exorbitant salary that they negotiated without knowing them well. After a while, salary and performance have little to do with one another. Some people are payed less (or more!) than they are worth because they are women or minorities. These are particularly dangerous because of the law and potential litigation.

Of course employers don't want employees to discuss their salaries, it can cause all sorts of trouble. Believe me, I know because the salaries of all my fellow workers have just been published online by the local newspaper, the employees are close to mutiny,and the management is huddled all day in meetings trying to deal with it. It also shows that management has been giving themselves some pretty sweet deals even though we are in a time of very tight budgets. Ouch!

As public employees, our salaries are public record, but no one ever had the cojones to go up to Payroll, flash an ID and sign up for a look at the database. Now, anybody with internet access can do it. I love it!

I don't think the situation would be any different if I worked for a private company, except there the boss would have total control of the figures.