公司爲何要對薪水保密?
If 'Jackass 3D' is anything like prior triumphs in the franchise, its band of raunchy, anarchic daredevils will make high art of low humor and leave no mishap private - especially if it involves someone's privates. But just try to get Johnny Knoxville and his gang to talk about how much each is paid. In America, money is the last conversational taboo.
That's probably a good thing for workplace morale. A new study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and Princeton University suggests that if all of our salaries were made known tomorrow, half of us would be made miserable and the other half would be made no happier.
That's more or less what happened at the University of California. Faculty and staff there are on the state's payroll. The passage in California of a right-to-know law in March 2008 enabled the Sacramento Bee to publish state worker salaries on its web site. Authors of the aforementioned study, now circulating as a working paper, contacted a random set of workers at three UC campuses and informed them of the web site. A few days later, they surveyed all campus employees on how they used the Bee's site, on their satisfaction with their job and pay and on whether they had job search intentions.
The findings: Usage of the site spread quickly, and 80% of new users said they looked up salary details on colleagues in their department. Among workers whose pay was below the median for their department, job satisfaction plunged and likelihood of searching for a new job increased. Interestingly, among those who were paid above the median, there was no meaningful change.
The findings fit neatly with something called the inequality aversion theory, proposed in 1999 by researchers in Zurich and Munich. In experiments, human subjects proved willing to sacrifice potential rewards if they could block others from receiving superior rewards. In other words, subjects in many cases cared more about fairness than gain. (A 2003 study involving monkeys showed similar behavior - and a bit of monkey rage displayed toward scientists who created the conditions.)
The University of California finding suggests employers have more to lose than to gain from publicizing salaries. Inexpensive workers might leave and costly ones aren't made more loyal.
That explains why some employers tuck secrecy clauses into their new hire contracts. Such clauses are losing their teeth, however. In the U.S., several states ban them, and in ones that don't, court decisions suggest enforcement is made difficult if not impossible by Section 7 of the National Labor Rights Act, which protects workers who engage in concerted activity for mutual aid and protection. In the U.K. as of Oct. 1, the Equality Act 2010 bans enforcement in cases where workers are trying to determine whether they're being discriminated against - something employers would find difficult to disprove.
As for workers, many of whom seem all too keen to share gritty personal details with colleagues, maybe it's time to dish about pay. Half will leave the conversation frowning, but if dissatisfaction is a motivator, they'll end up better off.如果說3D版《蠢蛋搞怪秀3》與前兩部成功的系列片有相似之處的話，那就是這夥惡俗的、無法無天的搞怪者會以高雅的藝術來表現低俗的幽默方式，將所有的災禍都公之於衆，特別是如果涉及到某人的隱私。但如果想讓諾克斯維爾（Johnny Knoxville）和他的劇組談談每個人的薪水，你一定會碰壁。在美國，錢是談話中的最後一個禁忌。
這可能對工作環境的士氣來說是件好事。加州大學伯克利分校（University of California at Berkeley）及普林斯頓大學（Princeton University）的一個新研究顯示，如果明天我們所有人的薪水都公之於衆，一半人會很悲慘，另一半人也不會更高興。
加州大學的情況差不多就是這樣。教師和員工都在州政府的花名冊上。加利福尼亞州2008年3月通過的一項知情權法規讓當地報紙《Sacramento Bee》在其網站公佈加州工作人員的薪水。上述的新研究已發佈成爲研究報告。作者隨意聯繫了三所加州大學分校的一些員工，並告知他們這個網站的信息。幾天後，他們對學校所有員工就如何使用該網站、對工作和薪水的滿意度以及是否有找新工作的打算進行了調查。
結果是：越來越多的人迅速開始使用該網站，80%的新用戶說他們查過所在部門同事的薪水詳情。薪水低於部門中間值的員工工作滿意度迅速下跌，而找新工作的可能性增加了。有趣的是，薪水高於部門中間值的人沒什麼有意義的變化。
這恰巧映證了1999年由蘇黎世和慕尼黑研究人員提出的“不平等厭惡理論”（inequality aversion theory）。實驗證明，實驗對象如果能阻止其他人接受比他更優越的獎勵，他就願意犧牲潛在的獎勵。也就是說，實驗對象在很多情況下更在意公平性，而不是獲得多少。（2003年的一個關於猴子的研究也顯示了相同行爲，猴子還對造成這種情況的科學家表示了憤怒。）
加州大學的研究結果表明，對僱主來說，公開薪水的結果是失大於得。薪水低的員工可能會離開，薪水高的員工不會更忠於公司。
這就解釋了爲什麼有些僱主會在新員工合同中塞進保密條款。但是這種條款的地位正在動搖。美國有些州不允許這樣的條款，在允許的州省，《國家勞動權益法案》（National Labor Rights Act）第七部分規定對採取一致行動爭取共同幫助和保護的員工進行保護，法庭的判決表明，該規定使得上述條款的實施十分困難。在英國，從10月1日起，《2010年平等法案》（Equality Act 2010）規定，在員工試圖判定他們是否被歧視（僱主通常都很難反駁）的情況下，這些條款禁止實施。
對員工來說，很多人似乎太過熱情地與同事分享自己的倒黴事，也許到了談談薪水的時候了。一半人聽了之後會緊皺眉頭地走開，但如果不滿能成爲一個激勵因素的話，他們最終可能會有更好的表現。
