Exposing Pay: Pay Transparency and What It Means for Employees, Employers, and Public Policy

Should employees be allowed to discuss their pay with other employees? Should managers explain the logic underlying pay structures and decisions to employees? Should companies disclose more information on pay for particular positions or even an individuals' actual pay? Pay equity has become a hot topic in recent years with pay transparency viewed as an important way to narrow gender and racial pay gaps. However, pay transparency policies and practices remain highly controversial, with divergent attitudes based largely on conjecture or anecdote. In Exposing Pay, Peter Bamberger provides evidence-based insights into how pay communication policies and practices impact outcomes at individual, organizational, and societal levels. Bamberger reviews findings from the recent surge in pay transparency research to help employees, managers, and policymakers better understand when pay communication policies and practices might enhance organizational performance and address social inequality and when such practices can lead to harmful consequences. Starting with a short overview of how companies have addressed the question of pay transparency over the past century and a brief summary of contemporary transparency regulations in dozens of countries around the world, Exposing Pay presents findings on the various forms of pay transparency on such outcomes as individual task performance, employee retention and turnover, citizenship behaviors such as helping, counter-productive work behavior, and pay dispersion or spread.An honest assessment of the good and the bad of pay transparency, Exposing Pay gives policymakers, managers, and HR specialists the perspective and information they need to make fair, sensible, and informed decisions.

Table of Contents:
Preface: Were It Only So Simple Chapter 1: The Historical and Legal Context of Pay Communication Chapter 2: Pay Communication: Core Concepts and Theoretical Underpinnings Chapter 3: Pay Transparency and Employee Perceptions, Attitudes, and Behavior Chapter 4: The Impact of Pay Transparency on the Firm Chapter 5: Societal-level Implications of Pay Transparency Chapter 6: Employee Pay Disclosure Chapter 7: Tales from the Trenches: Three Companies, Three Approaches to Pay Transparency Chapter 8: Policy Implications and Research Challenges

About the Author :
Peter A. Bamberger is the Domberger Professor of Management at Tel Aviv University's Coller School of Management, and Research Director of the Cornell ILR School's Smithers Institute. His research examines pay communication and compensation strategy, pro-social behavior, occupational health psychology, and the cognitive implications of discrete workplace events. Author of several books including Human Resource Strategy (Sage, 2000; Routledge, 2014) and Mutual Aid and Union Renewal (Cornell, 2001), Bamberger has published over 100 referred journal articles. He currently serves as the Vice-President Elect of the Academy of Management.

Review :
At work, your salary is more than a paycheck—it becomes a symbol of your status and worth. Although pay has long been a secret, Peter Bamberger's pathbreaking research makes the case that we might want to bring it out in the open. In this authoritative book, he covers the state of the science on when it's wise to be transparent about pay—and how to do it. No doubt that money shapes actions. This simple maxim has led to complex ideas and practices. Peter Bamberger masterfully turns this complexity into timely, relevant, and accurate information choices on how pay can signal the right actions through appropriate transparency. He weaves together research, practices, and tools that will improve pay practices. Pay transparency practices, ranging from enforced secrecy to the full disclosure of pay, are both controversial and important for employees, employers, and society. Peter Bamberger's comprehensive, balanced, and thoughtful review of a growing body of relevant empirical evidence, along with specific examples, provides information useful for anyone thinking about this important topic. Exposing Pay is essential reading for business leaders navigating the ever-increasingly complex dynamics of employee remuneration. As a world's foremost thought leader on pay transparency, Dr. Peter Bamberger artfully brings together a decade of research, company learnings and their implications in a book to help you quickly get smart(er) on this pivotal aspect of the employment experience. An enlightening and evidence-based review of research and best practice around pay transparency. Read this before your share your pay stub. Is pay transparency good or bad? In "Exposing Pay," Peter Bamberger offers a balanced and practical perspective on this increasingly vital issue, drawing on decades of research with clear implications for today's challenges. It's a must-read for leaders, workers, scholars, students and analysts. Bamberger's book provides an excellent summary of pay transparency theories and evidence, which are scattered across multiple disciplines (e.g., economics, sociology, management), with valuable, evidence-based suggestions for future researchers, managers, and policymakers...Exposing Pay is essential reading for anyone looking for evidence-based guidance on the topic.