Should everyone's wages be made public?

[FreeJoe]

If so, should it just be wages or should everyone's full income tax return be public?

[stevenleser]

1. Going to have to mull that one over a bit. Not sure. nt

[B2G]

2. What would be the benefit in that? nt

[NightWatcher]

3. Um, no

[PeteSelman]

4. No. I don't see how that helps anything.

What would be the point of that?

[JI7]

5. i have a feeling it might help people like romney and hurt those who struggle

[Agnosticsherbet]

6. Yes. It is pointless to say we have laws to require equal pay for equal work

and make it impossible to know how much other people make. For any position, everyones pay and any bonuses they earn pursuant to their job should be public knowledge.

I would not make income tax returns public. People can have other sources of income that are not relevant to a need to determine equal pay.

[NYC_SKP]

7. No not everyone. Possibly all government employees and others paid with public funds.

So, school administrators would, state and city workers would, and employees of contractors paid with public funds.

Yes, this might be good, but not everyone.

[upaloopa]

10. Our salaries are public I work for county government

There is website but I don't know the URL
It was started as a means to get the public to turn against us by saying we get paid more than they do.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

8. I was thinking about this earlier.

Obviously the 'employers can't retaliate against workers who share wage info' bill is a half-hearted measure towards addressing the gender pay inequality gap. If the men in a company simply refuse to share their salary info, or lie about it, the women in the company still might continue to be discriminated against in pay, and never know. Only if salaries are public knowledge, at least within the company, can women know if they're being systematically paid less than their male counterparts.

Ideally, no one should be 'haggling' for their salary. Salaries should be tied to objective, measurable standards, such as length of time with the company, position and responsibilities, danger attendant with the job, etc. The sort of things one might find, say, in union contracts.

[pnwmom]

15. Unfortunately, many jobs aren't so clearcut in their demands and performance.

It isn't as easy as you think to calculate the value an employee brings to a company.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

16. I doubt that most employers actually tie value to pay.

CEOs who run companies into the ground still get paid millions, while people who toil away, day after day doing the things the companies needs done to continue to meet sanitary and safety regulations get minimum wage.

In most companies, the mantra simply seems to be 'pay as little as possible, unless it's an executive position', regardless of the actual value the employee brings to the company.

[Bjorn Against]

9. No, I don't want corporate interests knowing my salary

I don't care if my friends or family know my salary, but I sure as hell don't want marketers to have easy access to that information. While I can see some ways that knowing everyone's salaries could benefit in some ways as it would bring more transparancy to companies that do not pay their employees decent wages, but unfortunately the downsides with the loss of privacy and potential for abuse of the information by monied interests outweigh any benefits that such transparancy would bring.

[badtoworse]

11. Absolutely not!!

[moondust]

12. No.

Doing that would lead to even more discrimination and a permanent caste system; more open class warfare and exclusionary behavior.

[pnwmom]

13. Absolutely not. We do still have a right to privacy in this country,

and that underpins our freedoms. The Constitution's implied right to privacy is why we don't have laws against birth control anymore -- and is essential to abortion rights.

[clandestiny]

14. Wouldn't our time be better spent demanding transparency from our crooked

Wouldn't our time be better spent demanding transparency from our crooked, corporate government, instead of thinking of reasons to create new laws to make available my PRIVATE information to the public?

Maybe we can demand to make public when our neighbors have a bowel movement or what kinds of medications they're on so we know if they have mental health issues. After all inquiring (NOSEY) minds need to know.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

17. That would be good too.

Have every document created for or by an elected official instantly mirrored to a publicly accessible database, so the public, if they chose, could know in real time what our politicians are doing for or to us at every moment in time, and could respond in a timely fashion, rather than being presented with fait accompli.

[clandestiny]

18. Yes, I would vote for this.