Great Britain: one out of every five employees its banned from discussing their salary with co-workers

On 15 January a survey by the trade union confederation the TUC revealed that 18% of UK employees have to uphold salary confidentiality clauses. Called ‘pay secrecy’ or ‘gagging’ clauses, they ban workers from openly discussing their pay with co-workers ,and if found do so run he risk of employment termination. TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady argued, “Pay secrecy clauses are a get out of jail free card for bad bosses. They stop workers from challenging unfair pay, allow top executives to hoard profits and encourage discrimination against women and disabled people.” As things currently stand, the 2010 Equality Act allows employees seeking to check they are not victims of wage discrimination, to contravene these ‘gagging’ clauses without any negative consequences. The online GQR poll of 2,700 aged 16 and over also revealed a generalised lack of transparency over the whole topic of remuneration. Thus 50% of employees do not know what senior managers in their organisations are paid and 53% are not given information about other people’s pay in their organisation. Only 18% reported that their workplaces had a transparent pay policy.