Why Do Bosses Want Their Employees’ Salaries to Be Secret?

In a narrow vote this week, the Senate politely smothered the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have protected workers’ rights to compare and discuss their wages at work. Aimed at dismantling workplace “pay secrecy” policies, the legislation built on the 2009 Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which strengthens safeguards for women and other protected groups against wage discrimination.

According to a 2003 study, “Over one-third of private sector employers…recently surveyed admitted to having specific rules prohibiting employees from discussing their pay with coworkers. In contrast, only about 1 in 14 employers have actively adopted a ‘pay openness’ policy,” which explicitly protects workplace discussion of wages. A 2011 survey estimated that 50 percent of workers are subject to some kind of restriction on discussing their pay with coworkers—slightly more women than men, with the largest concentration among private sector workers (about 60 percent, compared to less than 20 percent of public workers). The gaps vary along demographic lines: women workers, single parents and married childless women tend to face higher rates of these secrecy controls than do married mothers. And although civil servants generally had far lower rates of pay secrecy, the practice was more prevalent among women in the public sector.

Source: Portside < The Nation, Michelle Chen, April 11, 2014

Michigan Businesses not Worried About Minimum Wage

Crain's Detroit Business reports...

A possible increase in the minimum wage is of little concern to owners of small and midsize businesses in the state, according to an annual spring survey by Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc. 

Only 6 percent of respondents said an increase in the minimum wage would cause them to reduce their staffing. Sixty-nine percent said a hike would have no impact on them, while 21 percent said it would cause them to hold back on additional hiring. 

Seventeen percent of the owners said they plan to hire workers over the next six months, compared to just 4 percent who said they were going to be hiring last fall and 13 percent who planned on hiring a year ago. 

Only 4 percent said they expect to reduce their workforce, compared to 10 percent in the fall and 9 percent last spring.

Any stories against raising the minimum wage aren't being told by those whom will be impacted the most. 

President Obama Speaks on Raising the Minimum Wage

New Britain, CT on Mar 5, 2014
President Obama says that it's time to raise the minimum wage because nobody who works full-time should ever have to raise a family in poverty. March 5, 2014.

Whitehouse on Feb 12, 2014
President Obama delivers remarks on the importance of raising the federal minimum wage for all workers and signs an Executive Order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees on new contracts a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour.

Whitehouse: Raise The Minimum Wage -- It's The Right Thing To Do

Whitehouse, Mar 29, 2014 - In this week's address, Vice President Biden discusses the importance of raising the federal minimum wage. It's good for workers, it's good for business, and it would help close the gender pay gap, as women make up more than half of the workers who stand to benefit from a raise. And as the Vice President highlights, Congress should boost the federal minimum wage because it is what a majority of the American people want.