Employees have long been exhorted not to share their salaries with others. Of course, those exhortations have notoriously not worked, as a recent survey demonstrates.
What the Survey Tells Us
A survey of 1182 employed Americans conducted by Self Financial revealed some interesting insights into what they do, and don’t share about their salaries—and how truthful that information is.
More than three out of five (61%), said they had previously lied to their coworkers about their salaries. The older they get the less likely that is to be the case with 67.35% age 18-26 admitting to lying about their salaries to colleagues, and only 28.95% of those age 59-77.
How much they make also has an impact on their honesty. Interestingly, those at the high end of the wage scale—$150,000 or more—are most likely to prevaricate—77.79% say they’ve lied to colleagues about how much they’ve earned.
Only 48.2% of employees felt that their employers were fully transparent about their salary policies. That should be a concern for HR professionals.
Implications for HR
National legislation to combat pay inequity emerged in 2023, with many states and municipalities following suit with laws requiring employers to be transparent about pay rates in job postings.
Still, it’s clear from the survey results that many employees don’t feel their employers are being upfront about salaries. That represents both challenges and opportunities.
One big opportunity is keeping employees on board. More than three out of five employees (62.7%) said that they had left a job because they found out they were underpaid compared to one of their coworkers.
Opening conversations about pay can help minimize these risks.
Pay Transparency Conversations
Pay inequity may have contributed to some employers’ tendencies to try to keep salaries under wraps in the past. But in an environment where transparency is increasingly being required in job postings, removing these inequities simply makes sense. After all, even if salaries aren’t transparent internally, your employees are likely aware of your job postings.
HR has an opportunity to open the lines of communication and transparency around salaries, not only in terms of salary levels, but also in terms of how salary ranges are determined, the company’s stance on maintaining competitive salaries, how market rates impact salary ranges, and more.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Adivsor.