Salary transparency movements gained momentum in the late 2010s, with employees sharing compensation publicly to combat pay inequity, while laws in Colorado, California, and New York mandated salary ranges in job postings by 2023.
The Taboo Breaking
Corporate culture traditionally discouraged salary discussions—some companies explicitly forbade it (illegally, violating NLRA Section 7). This secrecy benefited employers: workers didn’t know if they were underpaid, and companies could pay different employees vastly different amounts for similar work. Around 2018, employees began breaking the taboo: sharing salaries with colleagues, posting compensation in online spreadsheets, and using platforms like Glassdoor and Levels.fyi to crowdsource salary data.
The Legislative Wave
Colorado pioneered mandatory salary disclosure in job postings (2021), followed by California, Washington, New York, and others by 2023. These laws required employers to include salary ranges in job ads, preventing bait-and-switch tactics where attractive jobs turned out to pay poorly. The transparency helped job seekers negotiate from knowledge rather than guessing, though some companies responded with absurdly wide ranges ($60K-$250K) that undermined the law’s intent.
The Pay Equity Impact
Research showed salary transparency reduced gender and racial pay gaps—when compensation became public, unjustified disparities became harder to defend. However, transparency also created new tensions: discovering coworkers earn more for similar work damaged morale, and some high earners resented losing informational advantage. The trend reflected broader shifts toward employee power and away from information asymmetry favoring employers.
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