职场常识: 与同事谈论工资话题的技巧

Companies may not like transparency, but they cannot outright bar rank-and-file employees from disclosing their pay internally or externally, under the federal National Labor Relations Act, says employment lawyer Charles Caulkins of law firm Fisher & Phillips. That means that an employee handbook or social-media policy barring workers from disclosing their pay is generally a violation, he says. (The rules are different for managers and supervisors, who can legally be prevented from disclosing pay.)
Fisher & Phillips律师事务所的就业律师查尔斯•考金斯(Charles Caulkins)指出，企业或许不喜欢工资透明，但是根据联邦政府《全国劳工关系法案》(National Labor Relations Act)，企业并不能完全禁止普通员工在企业内部或外部透露自己的薪资。考金斯说，这意味着那些禁止员工透露自己薪资的员工手册或社交媒体政策基本上都违反了该法案。（针对经理和主管的规定有所不同，防止他们泄露工资水平是合法的。）

Ultimately, says Mr. Hallock, compensation is an inexact science, determined by labor-market conditions, company budgets and individual employees' performance and turnover risk. Companies use salaries and raises to retain their high performers, but measuring performance itself is difficult, especially in fields that defy simple metrics like widgets built or customer-service calls answered.
哈洛克说道，从根本上讲，薪酬体系也是一门不精确的科学。它由劳动力市场状况、企业预算、各员工的表现以及员工流失率风险等因素所决定。企业通常利用高薪或加薪来留住业绩优异者，但是业绩考核本身就是件难事，在某些简单的衡量标准（例如完成的器件或应答的客服电话数量）行不通的领域尤为如此。

So one way for employers to head off internal politics: Be even more transparent.
因此，企业遏制内部政治的方法之一就是：行为更加透明。

New York data-analytics company SumAll makes pay scales and individual salaries open to everyone in the company. The company says that employees work more efficiently when no one is trying to guess whether their colleagues are making more than they are.
纽约数据分析公司SumAll将薪资等级和各员工的薪资向公司的每一个人公开。该公司称，当没人试图去猜测自己的同事是否比自己挣得多时，员工们工作起来会更有效率。

Workers and employers who support transparency argue that it helps ensure that people are paid fairly, and reduces discrimination based on gender or other characteristics.
支持薪酬透明的员工和企业认为，此举有助于确保大家获得公平的薪资并减少性别或其他特征方面的歧视。

Of course, not every employee is, or would be, willing to spill.
当然，并不是每个员工都愿意或可能愿意透露自己的工资。

Lucy Bayly, 43, a copywriter for an advertising agency in Oneonta, N.Y., compares discussions about income with conversations about sex: 'You're dying to know, but it's too rude to ask.'
纽约州奥尼昂塔(Oneonta)某广告公司43岁的文案露西•巴以利(Lucy Bayly)把讨论工资与讨论性爱放在了一起比较。她说：“你太想知道情况了，但是开口问就太粗鲁了。”

Such conversations run the risk of inspiring a corrosive kind of jealousy, she says. 'You think you're satisfied and then all of a sudden, you find out someone is paid a little more, and it ruins your day because you start wondering, 'Have I settled?' '
巴以利认为，此类谈话有激发强烈嫉妒的风险。她说：“本来你觉得自己挺满足的，然后突然间发现别人的工资比你高一点，这会让你一天都不好过，因为你会开始思考‘我满足了吗？’” 下页是谈论工资的技巧。