This happened back in September but I thought I'd share here. Last year I briefly worked for a marketing company in NYC. My good friend and roommate who had been working there for 2 years recommended me for the job. When I was hired I was able to negotiate my wage to $1/hour higher than I had been making at my previous company. (I was in the travel industry and had been furloughed due to Covid).
After I'd been working there for about 3 months, my roomie and I were on vacation together talking about work (blegh) and the subject of salary came up. I shared what I was making. She was making $1 less per hour. Keep in mind, she had been working there for over 2 years at this point. I also want to note that my position was entry level. I don't have a college degree, and my friend not only has a prestigious degree from NYU, but was also a much higher level employee than me. She was rightfully angry about this and prepared to go to our boss the following week and ask for a raise. She spoke to a couple other employees in different positions and gathered as much information about their salaries as possible, so she could round out her case. She explained to our employer that based on her position, years of experience, education, and other employees' salaries, she should be making significantly more.
Obviously she didn't name anyone who shared their compensation. She is an extremely trustworthy person and promised to keep me and our colleagues completely anonymous. But our employer knew we were close friends who lived together so of course I was a prime suspect. I received a call from my boss in HR basically saying she knew I shared my salary. I didn't deny it. She tried to tell me that wasn't allowed and I very politely informed her that it was a federally protected right. There was some (cordial) back and forth. “Who told you that?” “I thought it was common knowledge” “Well you're technically in HR so we have to be very careful about the information we share. You signed a form when you were hired saying you agreed not to share compensation information.” “I don't recall signing that form. And I don't see how that's legal, because it's a federally protected right for me to discuss my own compensation.” etc. I let her know that I wasn't trying to cause trouble, and that all I did was share my own information and no one else's. And that I would be more discreet in the future blah blah blah.
2 weeks from that call I was laid off. The excuse they gave was that it was due to covid office closures. This was due to the Delta variant going around at the time and our plans to return to the office had been postponed. A large part of my job was office managerial work so it was a believable enough excuse but something about it just felt off.
I've considered speaking to a lawyer about this but at the time I was also going through some health issues that had my full attention and I'd rather just put the past behind me. Due to the health issues I ended up leaving New York and moving back home for a bit. Soon after that I found out from my old roommate that they did partially reopen the office shortly after I was let go.