Study: Pay Transparency Laws Motivate Workers
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Here's your money briefing for Thursday, March 30th. I'm J.R. Whalen for The Wall Street Journal. Before we get into today's topic, we want to let you know that we're starting a new series, Under Contract, your guide to home buying, this Friday, just in time for spring. So make sure you're following the show so you don't miss the first episode. Pay transparency laws have given employees a clearer picture of co-workers' salaries and pay ranges being offered to new employees. But it could come with risks.
There is a prevailing fear among a lot of human resources executives and employers that sharing too much information about pay can cause workers to become demotivated and look for a higher paying job.
Several recent research projects examine the impact of paid transparency on morale and productivity. We'll go through the research with WSJ contributor Courtney Vinopal after the break.
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Pay transparency laws have been in place in several areas of the country for a few years and have cast a spotlight on things like workers' salaries and listed pay ranges for open positions. WSJ contributor Courtney Venepal joins us to discuss recent research on how the laws are being received by workers.
What are pay transparency laws and why are they becoming more common?
Hey, Courtney, thank you for being with us.
Thanks for having me.
So, Courtney, what kinds of concerns have these new pay transparency laws raised?
So I think there is a prevailing fear among a lot of human resources executives and employers that sharing too much information about pay can cause workers to become demotivated and maybe look for the exit door, look for a higher paying job. I think a lot of people have been in that scenario before. They find out that they're making less than their coworkers at a similar level, and it can be very discouraging. So I think that is the prevailing fear among a lot of employers right now.
So let's talk about some recent studies that focused on pay transparency and how it's being received by employees. You went through research from several universities about pay transparency among university workers. What stood out to you?
Yeah, so pay transparency, while it's just coming to a lot of companies, it has been the case that academics at public universities know their peers' salaries for a number of years now. That's because of transparency efforts by state agencies and news organizations. So a recent paper looked at this in the context of academia, and they tracked how pay transparency affected productivity among academics in eight different states. after pay transparency took effect. So they actually found that among these academics, there was no discernible dip in productivity in the years after pay transparency took effect in these states. If anything, it spurred them to work harder. This was actually the case among academics who found out that they were making more than their peers performing at similar levels.
They, for example, produced 7% more articles in the years after
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