Advertising salaries for fairer pay

While we might say that we’re passionate about our jobs (the top motivation given by respondents in the RSC’s 2019 Pay and Reward survey), few of us would turn up to work if we didn’t get paid. And few people would be happy in a job that didn’t pay them fairly. Yet figuring out what counts as fair pay can be tricky.

In many cultures talking about money is uncomfortable, leaving employees to rely on their employers and publicly available information to help them judge their worth. While more employers now share details of their payroll among employees, many others are reluctant to do so, fearing that it will sow dissatisfaction. With little research available on the effects of being open about salary, a company’s decision about which measure to take remains an issue of cultural preference.