Why you should Not Discuss Salary with your Coworkers

Why you should Not Discuss Salary with your Coworkers As a rule of thumb, this topic is not specific to nurses - there are very few professions where salary is an open book amongst colleagues, and there are some great reasons for that.

Although it’s hard to resist the temptation to find out what other people are earning, worst case, talking about it could get you into hot water with management and best case, could cause you frustration that is entirely unjustified.

So what are the main reasons for keeping your salary under wraps? We look at some of the best reasons here.

Related: How to Approach a Generational Gap with your Fellow Nurses 1. People aren’t always honest It really is that simple - just because someone is telling you that they make a certain dollar amount, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s true.

They may be earning less than you would expect for someone with their experience or responsibilities, and feel like they need to compensate. It may even be that by asking, you’ve put them on the spot and they feel compelled to answer, but not with the truth! Some people will under exaggerate because they feel like they’re not worth what they’re being paid, or that advertising their salary will cause conflict amongst staff that are on lower wages (and to be honest, they’re usually right to think that!).

It’s safe to say that many people, if directly questioned about their earnings, will reply with what they think they should earn, and that could go either way.

2. You don’t have all the information!

Assuming that your co-worker has told you the truth about their salary, the problem that you have is that you don’t have access to the information that HR did when they signed off on it.

It may be that your colleague has more experience in a certain specialism than you, or additional training or qualifications that make them more valuable to your health care facility as a whole. They may have certification that allows them to carry out additional duties that you are not aware of. Perhaps they receive a premium for working additional or unsociable shifts. Maybe, they are just really good at negotiating a salary prior to starting a new job!

Whatever the reason, unless you are sitting with them looking at their personnel file, it’s not unreasonable to assume that you may not be privy to everything that your recruitment team did when they made the decision to hire your coworker, nor when they set their salary.

3. It almost certainly won’t get you a raise Generally, whoever is in charge of your payroll is unlikely to be impressed by you telling them that you want a raise because other people in your department are being paid more than you.

As previously discussed, you don’t know why they are being paid more than you, and you’re unlikely to enamor yourself to management by putting them in the position of having to find a way to explain this to you without compromising confidentiality.

Secondly, you’ll also put yourself in the position of making them aware that you have been discussing salary. This is frowned upon in most industries, but particularly in health care where discretion is seen as a very valuable commodity.

If for some reason you have come across information which leads you to believe that you are being underpaid, it is far better to focus on personal reasons when asking for a raise - go to them armed with your achievements since you took on your role, any training that you have done and any additional duties or responsibilities that you have taken on. This is far more likely to be looked upon favorably than pointing out your wage discrepancy in comparison to your coworkers.

4. It can cause trouble So, we’ve established that people don’t always tell the truth when you ask them about their salary. We’ve established that even if they do, nobody but that person and your personnel department know why they warrant the salary that they do.

However, now you’ve started the discussion, it tends to spread like wildfire whispers about that person being paid so much more than everyone else are hard to control. Before you know it, you have a whole department or ward (all armed with complete misinformation) backbiting, resentful and unhappy because they feel that they are not as valued as their co-workers.

Related: Reasons Why Your Shoes Make or Break Your Nursing Career

As you can imagine, this is unlikely to endear you, or your colleagues, to your management team. Although there it is unlikely that you will face disciplinary action as a result of this, it is likely to damage your reputation with them.

5.

It could make you unhappy with your job

You might currently be very happy with where you are at work; you like your colleagues, you enjoy your job, you feel supported and that you have plenty of training opportunities. Everything is good and you wouldn’t dream of looking elsewhere.

Then suddenly, you find out that you are earning 5k a year less than someone ‘doing the same job’. Could you honestly say that you’d feel the same?

Leaving aside the fact that you will probably never know if they are telling you the truth, and also that you don’t know why they are getting the ‘extra’ 5k, is it really worth it?

In discussing your salaries, all you have really achieved is introducing uncertainty about your own position and made yourself question your worth in a job that you were previously satisfied with.

So what’s the solution?

If you are approached by a colleague who wants to know your salary, just politely tell them that you don’t discuss it. You're under no obligation to, or to give a reason for not wishing to do so. If you really feel the need to explain, you could just tell them that in your experience, it causes trouble and you like working with them too much to risk it!

If you are curious about what people are being paid for doing your specific role, don’t focus your attention on your work place. There are plenty of places online which allow you to look up the average salary for your specialism - using these should give you a good baseline as to what you should be expecting to earn.

If you find that you are earning less than you expect, approach your management team with a personalized statement demonstrating your value to the team - detail any additional roles or duties that you have taken on since you started your job, any training that you have undertaken and any improvements or savings that you have implemented.

Finally, bear in mind that even if you think that you are having a casual conversation with your colleague about salary; it’s unlikely to stay that way. If it turns out that you are both being paid the same, there’s unlikely to be any harm done; however, if either of you are being paid less than the other, it could lead to the fur flying, and a lot of unnecessary discontent.

Keep discussions about pay between you and your managers - you’re far more likely to have a positive outcome and continue to enjoy your job and your coworkers.

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