Should You Disclose Your Salary?

In the US, laws have been passed to make the salary discussion more transparent. But it’s not as simple in Singapore. We explore the pros and cons of salary transparency.

Picture this: You’re getting on well with a colleague over drinks when she confides in you her salary, and asks if you’re comfortable sharing yours. What do you do?

There has been ample research stating that salary transparency – the act of disclosing one’s salary – has played a crucial role in helping workplaces bridge the gender pay gap. It helps job applicants and employees determine whether they are being fairly compensated in line with both industry and company standards.

In 2022, a study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour analysed the salaries of 100,000 academics over 20 years. The salaries were made public online, an action that resulted in the gender pay gap improving by almost 50 percent. It was found that in response to transparency shocks, institutions altered their wage adjustment policies, granting larger pay increases to those identified as unfairly underpaid.

In the US, states including California, Washington, New York and Colorado have passed laws that require companies to post salary ranges on job listings in a bid to reduce the gender wage gap. But some companies have taken the issue into their own hands: Buffer, the social media tools company, has been publicly posting employee salaries. It alleges that this practice ensures people are paid their worth, and that their salaries meet industry standards. In an internal report, Buffer has stated that the unadjusted pay gap percentage among its 83 employees was noted to have decreased from 15.1 percent in 2019 to 0.4 percent in 2022.