Workplace & Labour Rights

You Cannot Discuss Your Salary — It Is Confidential

Q: The law only prohibits discrimination based on sex, religion, or race, not on salary discussions.

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Q: Our pay differences are based on performance, which is a legitimate 'common good' principle.

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A manager threatens disciplinary action against an employee for comparing pay with colleagues.

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The Situation

What They Said

“Discussing your salary with colleagues is a serious breach of company policy. Do it again and you will face disciplinary action.”

Said by a manager or HR after an employee has compared pay with co-workers and discovered a difference, or asked why they are paid differently.

The Fallacy

Appeal to Authority / False Rule

The argument treats an internal 'company policy' as if it can override a legal right. A workplace rule or contract term cannot lawfully take away a statutory right. Calling the conduct a 'serious breach' does not make it one — the label borrows the appearance of legal authority without any legal foundation. The premise collapses the moment you ask which law makes discussing your own pay unlawful, because none does.

What the Law Says

Your Legal Foundation

Ley de Contrato de Trabajo 20.744

art. 81 de la Ley de Contrato de Trabajo — Equal pay protection

“The employer must give all workers equal treatment in identical situations. Unequal treatment is considered to exist when arbitrary discriminations based on sex, religion, or race occur, but not when the different treatment responds to principles of common good, such as that based on the greater efficiency, industriousness, or dedication to their tasks by the worker.”

The manager's threat of disciplinary action for discussing salaries may violate the duty of equal treatment if it prevents workers from discovering arbitrary pay disparities. However, if the pay difference is based on legitimate factors like efficiency or productivity, the employer's policy might be permissible.

What Scripture Says

God's Word on This

Proverbs 31:8-9 (NET)

“Open your mouth on behalf of those unable to speak, for the legal rights of all the dying. Open your mouth, judge in righteousness, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”

Speaking up about unfair or unequal treatment — including comparing pay so that quiet injustice can be brought into the light — is presented as a duty, not a wrong. Silence enforced by fear serves the powerful, not the truth.

James 5:4 (NET)

“Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”

Unfair and hidden pay practices are condemned. An employer who uses secrecy to conceal how workers are treated is warned that the injustice does not stay hidden.

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What They'll Say Next

Common Counter-Arguments

After you respond, they may push back with these arguments. Members get the full rebuttal for each.

They might say: “The law only prohibits discrimination based on sex, religion, or race, not on salary discussions.”

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They might say: “Our pay differences are based on performance, which is a legitimate 'common good' principle.”

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