Should we be discussing salaries?
Many employees even thought it was against the law to discuss salaries, which, of course, it isn’t. The Equalities Act of 2010 states that employees have the right to discuss salaries for the purpose of collective bargaining or protection.There’ll be some people who still won’t be comfortable or confident about discussing their worth or wages. Does that mean they’ll be left lower down the salary ladder?The fact that this law had to be brought in and workers were convinced their bosses could legally block colleagues from discussing wages goes to show how deep-rooted this issue had become. More commonly, though, it has been down to misplaced politeness, which previously will have meant that some companies were able to employ unfair pay practices and lead to workers not getting less than what they deserve.
Is (salary) transparency the answer?
What I learned from the ‘transparency lesson’
It was a bit of a risk and did, initially, put a few noses out of joint, but ultimately it put us in a much better position moving forward. It also reinforced to me that all businesses would benefit from this kind of transparency. And it appears, based on a BBC report I heard at the end of last week, that there are a group of firms that have taken this level of openness among their workforces a step further by enabling their employees to decide their own salaries.What is ‘self-set pay’?
What has been dubbed ‘self-set pay’ reflects the changes businesses are making to attract the best talent by offering the most appealing employment packages.Being transparent and upfront made a real difference in my business, as it is in these tech firms, and undoubtedly it can have a positive impact on many others up and down the country.
Can we learn something from the tech sector?

Could ‘salary talk’ help retain key workers?
Like anything that fundamentally impacts on people’s livelihoods, this will need to be handled very carefully, but fair play to those businesses who have taken a fresh approach to how they attract and retain their workers. Being transparent and upfront made a real difference in my business, as it is in these tech firms, and undoubtedly it can have a positive impact on many others up and down the country.Share this story