Firstly, until I read a post on here earlier today, I had no idea that it was illegal for companies to require their employees to stay hush-hush about their wages. Secondly, if it’s illegal, why do so many employers try to get away with it? Are they banking on the fact that employees are unaware of their rights?
I used to work for an insurance company until January, and I got fired for some dumb crap revolving around my mental health and the amount of time I was taking off of work to deal with it all. That’s irrelevant to the point I’m trying to get at with this post, but for some context, upper management was shit and didn’t care AT ALL about the employees.
Anyways, I made the mistake of telling them how much I made at my previous job because the interview I had wasn’t really an interview. I got recommended for the job because my mom knows the president of the company personally, so the interview was put together really fast without a proper job offer in mind. It was really funky, to say the least.
I ended up getting an email a few days later with a job offer letter attached that showed a $0.50 increase in pay from the amount I had mentioned I was paid at my previous job, and I didn’t think much of it at the time. When hired, I was told not to discuss pay with other employees, and if I did, there would be repercussions. No one in the office questioned this policy, so neither did I.
The more I got to know what the people were like at work, the more I started to fuck around because everyone was being treated like garbage by upper management. A work friend and I talked about our pay in secret one time and I found out she was making $3.50 more an hour than I was, and we were both hired on the same day and were both fresh out of high school doing entry level work. Our jobs weren’t identical, but they were both fairly easy with room to grow in the company over time.
Naturally, I was upset when I found out, and now I wonder how many other employees they cheated out of a livable wage because of this stupid policy. According to everyone that openly spoke their mind when management wasn’t around, the wage that my work friend made, $3.50 more than my wage, was the supposed ‘minimum’ that this company offered for all entry level jobs (state minimum wage is less than what the company advertises is their minimum for entry level jobs).
Had I known that it was illegal for them to tell us not to talk about our wages, I would have thrown a huge fuss about my ridiculously low wage. I didn’t because I was afraid they would fire me. Ultimately, I’m glad that I’m not there anymore, but there’s still so many good people there that are probably being exploited similarly because of this policy. I hate it here.
TL;DR: I didn’t know it was illegal for employers to require their employees to keep quiet about their wages, I was paid less than all other entry level employees at my old job because I didn’t know any better, and now I’m glad that I have this information.