Can Employers Prohibit Wage Discussions Between Employees?

Last Updated on April 9, 2020 / Benefits & Compensation

Question:

We’ve been hearing a lot about the issue on wage discussions. Can I prohibit our employees from talking about their salary and benefits with each other?

Answer:

Employers may not discourage or prohibit wage discussions between employees. Likewise, employers may not in any way discipline or retaliate against an employee for discussing their wages or other terms and conditions of employment. Prohibitions of this nature infringe upon employees’ protected rights under Section 7 the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

The NLRA grants all employees (not just those in unions) the right to organize and engage in “concerted activity . . . for the purpose of mutual aid or protection.” This includes discussions about wages, benefits, managers, facilities, safety issues, and just about anything else that two or more employees might have a stake in, or opinion about. As a result, the protections provided by the NLRA are broad. Here are a few examples of protected activity:

• Employees discussing how much they are being paid, whether via email, break room chat, or a conversation on someone’s Facebook wall;
• Individual employee complaints regarding wages or employment conditions, if they reflect general workforce discontent or are attempting to elicit the support of co-employees to correct a problem;
• Employees discussing improving working conditions with other employees;
• Circulating a petition asking for better hours;
• Participating in a concerted refusal to work in unsafe conditions;
• Employees joining with co-workers to talk directly to the employer, to a government agency, or to the media about problems in the workplace.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which rules on cases related to NLRA violations, has been saying loud and clear – since the 80’s – that discussion of wages is an absolutely protected right. Distributing or enforcing a policy to the contrary is akin to having a policy that says the employer doesn’t pay minimum wage or overtime. We strongly recommend that employers immediately eliminate any written or unwritten policy telling employees that discussion of wages is discouraged or prohibited, or that wages are confidential, and also discontinue any written or unwritten policy of disciplining or terminating employees for this behavior.

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