Hey, not sure if this is the right type of post for this sub or not, but didn't know where else to ask. I work in a restaurant as a cook. Lately, employee morale has been kind of low, and a big part of it was how much we were getting paid. All the cooks discussed with each other our pay rates, and that led to a couple of us almost quitting. Surprise, as soon as management heard, we all got raises. But management knows we were talking about our wages, and that's essentially what led to them having to give us raises so we would stay.
First, the main manager started telling me that I was getting a raise, but wasn't allowed to tell any of my coworkers that I got a raise, or even say what my pay is. I told him that wasn't lawful, and I could talk about my wages with anyone I chose to. He obviously wasn't expecting that, and said something like, “Oh, I just don't think it's any of their business what you make”. Like he was looking out for me. I held firm, and repeated that I could talk about it with whomever, and that it wasn't even lawful for them to tell me not to.
Then today I went in and they had a new policy written on the wall that everyone had to sign. Basically just said employees aren't allowed to talk about their pay except with management. I refused to sign. Main manager doesn't know that yet.
A quick google search shows that I should be protected under the National Labor Relations Act since my restaurant makes over 500,000 a year. But I'm admittedly just doing some google research and was wondering if anyone could tell me if I'm definitively right or wrong. That way I'll know for sure when I inevitably have to argue this with my manager in a couple days.