Spy Where? Resources and Methods for Pay Reconnaissance

Gloria Steinam agrees with me. And so does Marci Alboher, who blogs at the NYT. Do I get a cookie now?

Cookie aside, it appears that the three of us have all opined in favor of more salary transparency as a means to fight pay discrimination. But just how, precisely, do we do that? Alboher passes on two recommendations from Penelope Trunk, who blogs on career development, to check Payscale.com and Salary.com. In the legal field, sites like Greedy Associates allow law firm associates to seek and share that information with as much or as little detail as they want to disclose. For government employees, that information should be publicly available through state or federal freedom of information laws. You can either request it yourself from the appropriate agency or find someone who has already compiled that information as many newspapers do.

Alboher, who says her income streams aren't easy to categorize, flat out asks people who do similar work what they get paid. How do you like them ovaries? You, too, can go the direct route, even if your employer doesn't want you to--the National Labor Relations Act guarantees employees, even nonunionized ones, the right to discuss "wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment" for their "mutual aid or protection." Employers don't like it, and they can prohibit those discussions from happening during work hours or on the job site, but they can't legally retaliate against employees for sharing salary information so long as it is shared within those parameters. That doesn't mean they might not try, so use discretion and if you take your findings to your boss, be cautious about disclosing the source of your information. But you do have every right to have these conversations.

This post was featured in the 162nd Carnival of Personal Finance.