Great article by Dane Atkinson, kind of reiterating some of the points I’ve made here and here. Key conclusion:
If you intend to be evil, open salaries and transparency are not for you. If you hide salary information from employees, you will live in terror (one reason CFOs are exceptionally well-paid). Eventually, compensation secrets always leak and employees leave the company without discussion. People get too distressed and offended to talk about secrets they shouldn’t know.
Shadows are home to inequality, fear and resentment. In business, some of the most basic moral principles are violated under the banner of discretion, privacy and efficiency. You can build your culture of transparency on a foundation of white lies, and watch it crumble beneath your employees. Or you can let all the data flow. What are you hiding?
Not much to add, really! Read the whole thing here.