A question to Ask the Workplace Doctors about an employee disclosing salaries of coworkers.
Question: A coworker of mine logged onto our Office Manager’s computer and logged on (she has access to the code) to our program that manages employee’s salaries. She then proceeded to tell other employees my salary. Is this illegal? My boss does know and says there will be consequences, yet we have not seen them yet.
Response: There are no laws about revealing salaries, but in most companies it is a rule violation that would—and should—merit serious sanctions, up to dismissal. You don’t indicate the size of your organization, but generally, the larger the company, the more severe such a violation is considered to be.