Employers’ wage secrecy policies typically are not legal in California because employees generally have a right to discuss the amount of their pay. Accordingly, employers cannot: 1) require that employees do not disclose the amount of their wages; 2) require that employees sign a waiver, nondisclosure agreement, confidentiality agreement, or other document denying employees’ right to disclose the amount of their wages; or 3) fire, discipline, or discriminate against employees who disclose their wages.
Employees have a protected right to disclose the amount of wages they are paid. This includes discussing total wage amounts received, pay rates, bonuses whether or not received, what employees earn, what employees are entitled to receive, wages and bonuses paid to other employees, pay structures that allow for an increase or decreases in wages even without mentioning dollars and cents, possible increases in pay, perceived disparities in pay, etc.
The public policy reasons for the existence of the right for employees to discuss their amounts of pay is to help employees determine whether they are being fairly compensated for their work and paid everything they earned. Discussing pay often reveals wage and hour laws. Wage disclosures can also help reveal employers’ illegal discrimination. Finally, employees might find it useful to talk about their amount of wages with each other to do their homework before asking for wages.
(See Link(s): Labor Code Section 232)