SEMESTER ASSIGNMENT 1

Money is the most essential thing in the modern era of capitalism. Even though, it’s still one of the taboo topics in a polite conversation. This topic bothers me because I started making money recently and I understood that it’s important not to hide your income because it causes prejudice and unfairness.

I’ve read an article (Tim Herrera Aug. 31, 2018. Why You Should Tell Your Co-Workers How Much Money You Make. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/31/smarter-living/pay-secrecy-national-labor-rights-act.html?searchResultPosition=2. Date of access: Dec. 21, 2019, Date of publication: Dec. 21, 2019). about how people are affected by employers prohibiting employees from discussing their salaries. Personally, I think that this restriction is illegal and it has a bad influence either on colleagues or the whole society. 

First of all, prohibiting from talking about your income can be a means to hide discrimination. It’s 2019 and there are still serious disparities in pay based on race and gender. It’s not a secret that women all around the world earn less money than men for an equal amount of work. So policies that discourage or employees from discussing these are problematic because they can make it difficult for employees (those who are considered the minorities) in the private sector to learn that there are unlawful disparities.

Secondly, it’s just unlawful for private sector employers to prohibit employees from discussing wages and compensation. We live in a time of democracy. Natural rights and freedom of speech are considered to be the most valuable points in the life of every person. So, employers take freedoms from those people this way. The people have been struggling with slavery for ages, isn’t it a step toward it?

There is an opposite opinion that if you prohibit discussing wages it saves the working team from envy. If a person doesn’t know that his colleagues earn more, he or she won’t be jealous. I don’t agree with it as people usually envy because they don’t know the truth. If the wages are non-private information it causes competition but this competition is a healthy one.

To sum up, I strongly believe that employers should stop prohibiting their employees from discussions about money. If people are fare with each other the company works better.