There’s like this weird culture around it where some may even consider it rude or too personal like it’s equivalent to asking someone their social security number or something
I’ve heard a rumor it’s because companies/bosses don’t want people to talk about their pay between employees because they may find discrepancies compared to their coworkers, but I’m not 100% sure that’s actually why since even their employees consider it taboo.
In: Economics
The answer you’ll get on Reddit is it was encouraged by companies to oppress workers to make them not know how much each person is getting paid and overall wages will stay lower.
That’s true but not the whole story. The deeper reason is that we tie our self worth to our income. We’re scared that if we tell someone what our “worth is” that we’ll learn we aren’t as valuable as someone else.
Overall though it’s a silly thing to be scared of because your job or company isn’t there to love you or define your self worth, it’s just a human instinct we’re falling into. Do your best to create a culture in your workplace that is open about salaries so everyone’s wages go up. Remind people that wages don’t define their self worth, wages are purely about the lowest they can get away with.
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