Employees Use Salary Transparency Laws Just as Companies Feared

Many businesses balked at new salary transparency laws. The California Chamber of Commerce called California’s law a “job killer.” Companies started complying with the “letter of the law” by posting wildly large ranges. Citibank, for instance, posted a job with a salary range of “$0-$2,000,000.” 

Why were they scared? For many reasons, but one is that if the job postings had public salaries, current employees could see what the company was willing to pay. And that could cause “wage compression,” which is where the gap between the new hire and experienced employees shrinks. With everyone knowing more, companies couldn’t keep internal salaries a secret. (Non-management employees can always discuss their wages, but the business doesn’t have to encourage it, and culture generally helps people keep their mouths shut.)

And precisely what businesses were afraid of happening happened, according to Kimberly Nguyen.

To keep reading, click here: Employees Use Salary Transparency Laws Just as Companies Feared

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4 thoughts on “Employees Use Salary Transparency Laws Just as Companies Feared

  1. The laws need to go beyond just requiring job postings to include a range, they need to mandate full transparency inside the company. It doesn’t need to be public, but the full compensation for every employee should be available to all employees in a company. That would allow for rooting out pay discrimination based on age/gender/marital status/race/creed/etc. If John is being paid more than Jane for doing the same job, the company should be able to show objective reasons why.

    1. Probably they will just pay everyone less. The exact same lower salary. No one’s salary will “rise up”.

  2. ” Employee retention ultimately saves companies money, even if they have to raise salaries to keep them.”
    YES.
    Workers will go somewhere else if you don’t. Success does not depend on shareholders but on labor. If you don’t have anyone doing the work, then the company won’t make any money.
    Don’t look for a unicorn — make one!

  3. LOL Citibank’s range doesn’t even comply with the law. At least start your spite range with minimum wage.

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