Most employees probably don’t know how much their colleagues earn, and they likely don’t know what their counterparts at other companies are paid. This lack of

transparency may prevent millions of employees from earning more than they currently do..

There is limited evidence on the effects of pay transparency on middle-class wages, largely because there are few examples of pay transparency practices inسوق العمل 

the United States, for example. American experiments with pay transparency have primarily taken two forms: the disclosure of salaries

public-sector workers and executives who receive substantial compensation.

In these selected cases, they found that many employees have no idea how their salaries compare. Not knowing what their colleagues earn is part of

Private-sector workers have few reliable resources, and public data often lacks enough detail to make a useful comparison,

and companies rarely publish pay data and details.

Social stigma and workplace policies often prevent employees from even discussing pay—a recent survey found that 41% of employees

feel discouraged and embarrassed to discuss pay, and 25% fear being punished as a result of pay discussions.

On the other hand, employers often have easy access to valuable compensation data. Salary surveys,

إليها أيضاً بـ”مسوحات التعويض”، منتشرة على نطاق واسع بين أصحاب العمل – حيث يقدر أحد المصادر أن أكثر من نصف الشركات في أمريكا

America use this service.

The data these surveys provide give managers a comprehensive picture of market compensation. These surveys are justified by the desire to شركات التوظيف

offer competitive salaries. But the problem lies in the information imbalance between managers and workers. Across a range of different circumstances,

economic studies have found that the party with more and better information comes out ahead.

كان المشرعون يتحركون بشأن شفافية الأجور. وأقرت عدة ولايات في أمريكا قوانين “مكافحة الانتقام” التي تحظر على أصحاب العمل معاقبة العمال

for discussing their pay, and the Obama administration took steps to collect better pay data as a strategy to combat gender and racial discrimination. Lawmakers in

المشرعون في الكونغرس كلا من هذه الاستراتيجيات في قانون الإنصاف في صرف الرواتب – وهو مشروع قانون مقترح يهدف إلى سد فجوة

gender pay gap.

كما تعمل التكنولوجيا على تحسين الوصول إلى بيانات الأجور. فبدأت مواقع مثل Glassdoor في إزالة الوصمة الاجتماعية حول مناقشة الأجور.

Public data, such as data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is more accessible thanks to increased internet access, and some companies

التقدمية ، مثل Buffer ، بجعل كشوف مرتباتها شفافة بالكامل عن طريق نشر راتب كل عامل على الإنترنت.

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Can this kind of transparency help?

The emerging literature tells a complex story:

Wage disclosure can raise pay for low-wage workers. In cases where high salaries face backlash,

العالية – كما هو الحال مع المديرين التنفيذيين في المدينة – يمكن أن يؤدي ذلك إلى ضغط أجورهم.

In a 2010 study of California, where city managers’ salaries were made public, Alexander Mas shows that such disclosure reduced

الرواتب العامة، خاصة تلك التي تجاوزت 200 ألف دولار، وزاد من الاستقالات بشكل حاد – وهي نتائج يرجعها إلى ردود فعل شعبية عنيفة ضد

high public-sector salaries.

Maas also studied disclosure of executive pay during the Great Depression, finding that executive salaries

generally rose as a result of such disclosure. The lowest-paid CEOs in the industry saw their pay increase once they saw how much other executives were earning.

المديرين التنفيذيين الآخرين.

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Pay disclosure can affect more than just wage levels:

An empirical study by David Card and co-authors found that relatively low-paid workers reported lower job satisfaction and higher rates of job searching.

about work after learning how their pay compares with others.

Our view, based on the theory and evidence available to us so far, is that greater transparency will help the average worker, and policymakers can do

more to encourage this transparency.

We offer some additional strategies for creating a transparent environment around pay:

.

أولاً ، يجب على الدول حماية العمال الذين يناقشون مستوى الأجور في العمل؛ ولا ينبغي على أي عامل مواجهة الانتقام أو العقاب بسبب التحدث

about pay.

.

ثانيًا ، يجب على الدول دعم جهود لجنان تكافؤ فرص العمل أو من على شاكلتها، لجمع ونشر البيانات حول الأجور بشكل ديموغرافي.

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ثالثًا ، Regulators should revise antitrust laws governing the use of compensation surveys to encourage and incentivize managers to share this

information with employees. Using compensation surveys is justified for competitive reasons; withholding information from workers is not.

.

رابعاً ، على الحكومات أن تحظر على الشركات السؤل عن الأجر المسبق خلال عملية التوظيف، ما لم تكن راغبة في تقديم معلومات عن هيكل

with the new employee. This is a compromise for companies seeking to offer competitive and attractive salaries; the price of this information should be

transparency for prospective employees about how their pay will compare with that of their new colleagues.

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خامسًا ، Governments should allocate a small amount of funding to the Department of Labor to study pay transparency. If information helps and provides better

ways to raise wages, policymakers will have a new tool in their arsenal to improve employees’ well-being.

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Benefits of pay data transparency:

Together, these five reforms will help put employees and employers on an equal footing when it comes to information about pay. The ultimate

goal is for everyone to negotiate wages with the same information, creating the right conditions for equal opportunity and freedom of choice through transparency.

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The drawbacks of wage transparency:

هناك عيوب محتملة لهذا النهج. على سبيل المثال ، شعر تود زنجر بالقلق في مقالة “هارفارد بيزنس ريفيو” لعام 2016 من أن شفافية الأجواء

could lead to discord in the workplace and harm productivity.

Transparency is fair enough, but this workplace disruption is precisely the point of disagreement and concern. It is only natural for employees to react negatively when they

are underpaid and realize how much they contribute compared with their higher-paid colleagues.

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An overview of the idea:

Consumers understand the power of comparison shopping. Online shoppers often visit more than one website to compare prices. Looking for the best

salary for a job follows exactly the same principle, but the stakes are much higher. However, employees’ right to make an informed choice by having all the information about salary

and job responsibilities available to them—and the opportunity to assess the options—is something that should be ensured while taking into account factors that may affect how the organization operates,

but companies with a well-designed job structure that set employee salaries professionally will certainly not be affected by pay transparency policies.