Do you know when it became illegal to ban salary discussions in the US? All the companies I have worked for recently have mentioned it not being allowed at some point.
Comment on Users ditch Glassdoor, stunned by site adding real names without consent
refurbishedrefurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org 3 months ago
This is one of the most obvious potential cases of purposeful sabatoge. They were probably bribed by other big businesses to destroy their reputation so people would stop using the site.
There’s nothing businesses hate more than their workers having negotiating power, and wage transparency gives them more power than they had before. There’s a reason why it’s considered “rude” in the US to discuss wages with co-workers; I always make a point to discuss my wage with all of my co-workers, since it’s illegal for businesses to prevent that discussion.
In most other countries, it’s the norm to openly discuss your wages; unions are also more common in other countries. It’s just standard toxic workplace cultures trying to prevent people from getting paid what they’re worth, or god forbid, forming a union.
Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 3 months ago
teotwaki@lemmy.world 3 months ago
You cannot prevent your employees from discussing wages. It is literally illegal to do so, and you cannot reprimand people for doing so.
Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the Act), employees have the right to communicate with their coworkers about their wages, as well as with labor organizations, worker centers, the media, and the public. Wages are a vital term and condition of employment, and discussions of wages are often preliminary to organizing or other actions for mutual aid or protection.
If you are an employee covered by the Act, you may discuss wages in face-to-face conversations, over the phone, and in written messages. Policies that specifically prohibit the discussion of wages are unlawful as are policies that chill employees from discussing their wages.
You may have discussions about wages when not at work, when you are on break, and even during work if employees are permitted to have other non-work conversations. You have these rights whether or not you are represented by a union.
hamid@lemmy.world 3 months ago
But you are still an at will employee and they can fire your for anything else for any reason at any time with little recourse unless a lawyer will take your case and they almost never do. They won’t fire you for talking about your wages but suddenly you get bad reviews and get laid off.
mosiacmango@lemm.ee 3 months ago
If you get suddenly laid off after doing a legally protected activity, you do have very direct resource.
Judges aren’t generally stupid, nor is the national labor board. If you do a legal thing companies hate and are suddenly fired out of the blue, it’s very obvious what happened, no matter what the comapny claimed. It may take time and effort, but you very may get back paid the fof the entire time you were fired.
teotwaki@lemmy.world 3 months ago
You didn’t get laid off because you discussed your wages.
You were laid off because you couldn’t keep your cards close to your chest and told the company y’all had been discussing wages.
Having the right to discuss it doesn’t mean you should do it in front of the boss.
Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 3 months ago
It’s not illegal. It’s frown upon both socially and at the work culture. It makes people uncomfortable.
Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Ripping farts is frowned upon/makes people uncomfortable too.
arc@lemm.ee 3 months ago
From the article that they acquired a professional social networking app so their intention is clearly to be like LinkedIn - real names, links, career history, “social”. They want to monetize that information to sell to recruiters and salesmen.
So basically they’re nakedly greedy and they continue to suck. I thought LinkedIn was awful but Glassdoor is a whole new level of awful.
ripcord@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Man, people love to make up conspiracy theories.
The article explains the motivation, which is also bad and plausible. There’s no need to pull stuff out of your ass to explain it too.
diffusive@lemmy.world 3 months ago
While I see what you are seeing, I think people will just move to the next startup.
Also by Occam’s razor, don’t explain with malice what you can explain with stupidity
Stretch2m@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Hanlon’s razor.
Welt@lazysoci.al 3 months ago
Fair point, but I’m wondering which part you were applying Occam’s razor to - what Glassdoor did is clearly malicious!
diffusive@lemmy.world 3 months ago
To the part that they were bribed.
I think they are simply in the pipe dream that they will become the new LinkedIn
prex@aussie.zone 3 months ago
That would be Hanlons razor. I have no idea whether it applies here.
FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 3 months ago
There is also the growing difficulty of disseminating real information from false information, but that should have been more the reviewed company’s problem than Glassdoor.
Wooki@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Or
Think about it for more than 1 second.
They’ve been sued for liable.
Or
They’re being shit and creating a new revenue stream because constant growth and bonuses
ripcord@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Or
Read the article
hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 3 months ago
In which countries is it custom to openly discuss salary? In Germany and most if not all countries I’ve been to professionally it is not the norm. This is of course bad for transparency/employees and good for employers.
GoodEye8@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Where I live we don’t really discuss salaries and I think that mostly comes down to society being tricked into believing it’s a bad thing. However our national statistics agency has made salary statistics public, which means anyone easily check their salary range and see if they’re being underpaid. I actually prefer that to discussing with co-workers because you end up getting a much better picture of your industry.
hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 3 months ago
In my country I’m only aware of statistics published by a newspaper (source may be statista, some agency or a job portal). I find the values weird however as I earn way above the stated value for my general description. I’m in a bit of a niche however what might work to my benefit. The statistics still feel like ‘expectation management’ to me though.
teotwaki@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Germany has a principle of equal treatment. The only way to ensure this is respected is to discuss wages. There is a legal precedent that makes it completely unambiguous that discussing wages is protected. It may be uncomfortable, but that’s just social pressure, encouraged by companies.
hensche.de/Rechtsanwalt_Arbeitsrecht_Urteile_AGB_…
hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 3 months ago
Not denying that it’s legal and beneficial to discuss that. It’s unfortunately not common (yet?).
DrM@feddit.de 3 months ago
All of scandinavia. There are public registers where you can look up the salary of everyone for norway, sweden and finland. When these registers were introduced, the salaries were normalized across the whole population
teotwaki@lemmy.world 3 months ago
In Denmark, I’m part of a union which publishes salary stats for every possible job title, management responsibility, education, in a fairly convoluted matrix. Still, this allows me to easily negotiate with companies and see how well they pay. There might be something organised by the government, but I’ve never had a need for it.
hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 3 months ago
I like the idea of a register a lot.
Do you also talk about it though? I was in Denmark on business for a couple of weeks and I don’t recall there being a discussion about it.
anguo@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
In China, “How much do you make?” Is right up there with “What’s your name?”.
hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 3 months ago
That would indeed be a WTF moment for me.