Don't Talk About Money, because You're Probably Getting Screwed

Anyone who has ever worked has likely run afoul of the "Don't talk about money" rule. Nearly every place that hires people has a rule like this. Ostensibly it's to not make people jealous that others make more than they do, and that is theoretically a sound idea. Unfortunately, when two people who do the same job, same title and everything, discuss pay, they may discover that one of them gets paid more for the same job.

It's possible that one may have got raises over time due to performance. The case I'm thinking of does not have that excuse. When the company someone works for outright does not give pay raises, and two people with the same position make different amounts, the question becomes: Why?

If nobody gets raises, there's no reason for multiple pay levels without differing titles. A pay scale usually has a ziggurat structure, with a store manager at the top. Below that you have the assistant manager, any subsequent managers such as department managers, then supervisors or key-holders, and regular employees at the bottom. But when supervisor one gets paid $10.75/hour and supervisor two gets $11.50/hour, one must wonder why that is. It makes even less sense when supervisor one became a supervisor before supervisor two.

This brings me back to the "don't talk about money" rule. The only way people can find out if they're being paid differently for the same job is to ask each other. If you ask each other and you find out you're being paid less than your co-worker, you aren't supposed to be able to bring this up because you shouldn't know how much other people get paid, and theoretically you can get in trouble. But why? Why do you get in trouble for asking, or being told, how much a co-worker gets paid? 

I would welcome any ideas, but the only option I can think of is it helps companies not have to pay people more. When I was hired at one of my previous workplaces (previous because it's not like everyone's current employer doesn't read all their online stuff, right?) I was hired at $8.50/hour, which I only got because I worked in the state of Illinois, where minimum wage is $8.25. A few months later I transferred to a store in Indiana because it was closer to home and I couldn't really afford all that fuel to get to and from the Illinois store, plus with only one car it would be in no way convenient for my wife and I to have to commute to two different places. When I got to the new store I was still paid my $8.50/hour while some of my co-workers were paid only $8/hour. If they had known about my wages being higher despite not outranking them and doing the same work, they would not have been happy. They might have asked for raises. And I would have supported them, because even my $8.50/hour didn't cover all my expenses.

I left that company for another employer, also not the one I am currently with. I took a pay cut to work there but it was even more close to home and less stressful, so I thought it balanced. My pay cut brought me to $8/hour, while many of my new co-workers were still only making $7.50/hour. Some of them had been with the company for two to three years, and were really beginning to feel the impossibility of coping with such low pay. One of them asked me my wages, and, feeling no need to keep secrets, I told them my wages and why it was higher than I thought others' might be (working in another state previously). What exactly happened after that, I do not know, but I do know the employee in question did receive a pay raise. Why was this such a hassle for the company? The company is a multi-million dollar corporation with locations around the country. Would an extra half dollar per hour for tens of thousands of employees put such a dent in their profits that they would have to close down stores, raise prices, or even fold altogether?

The obvious answer is of course no. No company currently operating in such ways cannot afford to pay its workers such a small amount more. This is part of why the President's push to raise the minimum wage to $10.10/hour is so simple. It is such a small amount that no company that is already succeeding cannot afford it. It is also not enough to life off of, but that is a separate discussion. The nature of capitalism causes most companies to fight against paying their workers more in nearly every circumstance, for no other reason than that it would lower profits from astronomically high to merely ludicrously high.

You'll forgive me if I don't weep for the shareholders.