Over the past few months, my department, and a few others, have been given generous raises at work. They have, however, always been accompanied with the traditional “do not discuss this raise with anyone” warning from HR. Well, obviously, that's just code for, “we are only paying you more because we have to; please don't tell others, or we might have to compensate them fairly too.” I decided that everyone should know about the raises. Two of my coworkers in departments that didn't get the raises are now in active negotiations to get salary raises AND backpay for the time they worked without the pay bump. Always discuss your wages. It's one of the most effective tools for identifying unfair compensation practices, and anyone who tells you otherwise is certainly trying to screw someone out of their fair share of earnings.