In the United States, most workers abide by an unspoken taboo against discussing pay with coworkers. This cultural norm is paired with explicit, formalized bans on talking about compensation in some workplaces. However, “pay talk” matters.  If workers know how much they are paid relative to their peers, they can decide whether they are being paid fairly and have more agency to negotiate pay.  But when workers can’t talk about pay, they lose this bargaining leverage, which makes it easier for supervisors to maintain pay inequality. 

To explore these dynamics, authors Patrick Denice, Jake Rosenfeld, and Shengwei Sun analyzed when and why workers discuss pay, using a survey amongst Americans working primarily in the private sector (for-profit businesses, like retail stores, restaurants, and tech companies) and the government. They find that the likelihood of workers discussing pay together depends on both the official rules of an organization and cultural, interpersonal matters, like workers’ trust in management. 

Most public sector, government employers (which include sites like the Department of Veterans Affairs, public universities, and public hospitals) publicize their pay scales, making it easier for workers to assess their pay relative to their peers. On the other hand, only about 10% of private establishments publicize pay. Not surprisingly, private sector workers in this survey were more likely to discuss pay than government employees, reflecting the importance of interpersonal resources and networks when official information is scarce. Even without formal barriers, cultural norms are powerful in shaping whether or not workers will discuss pay; in organizations where pay discussions are not banned, less than half of workers discussed pay with each other. 

The authors also pointed out instances when these norms and formal rules are broken. In these cases, workers recognized that they may need to violate rules to leverage higher pay. Younger workers were more likely to violate pay talk bans, reflecting a generational shift regarding norms that perpetuate workplace power divisions.Younger workers were more likely to violate pay talk bans, reflecting a generational shift regarding norms that perpetuate workplace power divisions. Workers who planned to ask for a raise within the next year were also likely to violate bans on pay talk, demonstrating how critical career transitions necessitate rule-breaking when formal processes lack helpful information. On the other hand, violations of pay talk bans were less common among workers who reported positive relationships with their managers.

Ultimately, most workers who resist implicit norms and break norms and rules do so in pursuit of fair wages, thus challenging pay inequality and traditional power dynamics at work.