Your Legal Rights to Share Pay

Yes, it is legal to share your pay information. Federal law has protected this right since 1935.

The Short Version

You cannot be fired, disciplined, or retaliated against for sharing your salary, wages, or pay information with anyone — coworkers, friends, family, or the public. This is federal law and applies to the vast majority of workers in the United States.

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)

Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, passed in 1935, gives employees the right to engage in "concerted activities for mutual aid or protection." The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has consistently interpreted this to include discussing wages.

What this means for you:

You have the right to discuss your pay with coworkers
You have the right to share your salary publicly (including online)
Your employer cannot have a policy prohibiting pay discussions
Your employer cannot require you to sign agreements forbidding pay disclosure
Your employer cannot fire, discipline, or threaten you for discussing pay
This applies whether discussions happen at work, off-duty, or online

Source: U.S. Department of Labor

Who Is Protected

The NLRA covers most private-sector employees. You are protected if you are:

A full-time employee
A part-time employee
A temporary or seasonal worker
Union or non-union

Limited exceptions: Certain workers are not covered by the NLRA, including federal government employees, agricultural workers, domestic workers, independent contractors, and supervisors/managers. However, many of these groups have separate protections under other laws.

State Pay Transparency Laws

In addition to federal protection, approximately 15 states (and growing) have enacted additional pay transparency laws that go even further:

California — Employers must provide salary ranges in job postings and to current employees upon request
Colorado — Salary ranges required in all job postings
New York — Salary ranges required in job postings statewide
Washington — Salary ranges required in job postings
Connecticut, Maryland, Nevada, Rhode Island — Various disclosure requirements
Illinois, Hawaii, Minnesota, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, Maine — Additional protections enacted or taking effect

What About NDAs and Confidentiality Agreements?

Any employment agreement, NDA, or company policy that prohibits you from discussing your pay is unenforceable and illegal under federal law. Even if you signed one, it cannot legally be enforced against you for sharing wage information.

The NLRB has repeatedly ruled that employer confidentiality policies regarding compensation violate the NLRA. If your employer has such a policy, they are the ones breaking the law — not you.

Sharing Your Paystub Specifically

Sharing the financial information from your paystub (gross pay, net pay, deductions, taxes) is protected activity. There is no law against showing someone what you earn.

The only considerations when sharing a physical paystub image:

Your own PII — protect yourself by redacting your name, SSN, address, and bank info (this protects YOU from identity theft, not your employer)
Company trade secrets — pay information is NOT a trade secret. Courts have consistently ruled that compensation data is not proprietary business information.

What If My Employer Retaliates?

If your employer fires you, disciplines you, reduces your hours, or takes any adverse action because you shared pay information, they are violating federal law. You can:

File a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) — nlrb.gov
File a complaint with your state labor department
Consult an employment attorney (many offer free consultations for retaliation cases)

Retaliation complaints have a 6-month filing deadline with the NLRB, so act promptly.

Why Pay Transparency Matters

Workers who know market rates earn 5-10% more on average
Pay transparency reduces gender and racial pay gaps
Companies with transparent pay have higher employee satisfaction and retention
Informed workers make better career decisions

WAGETru and Your Rights

WAGETru exists to exercise the rights guaranteed by federal law. By sharing anonymized pay data, you help:

Other workers understand if they're being paid fairly
Job seekers negotiate from real data instead of guesswork
Expose pay disparities between similar roles
Hold employers accountable to market-rate compensation

Your submission is completely anonymous. We remove all personal information and delete the original document within 24 hours. There is no way for an employer to trace published data back to any individual.

Bottom line: Sharing your pay is your legal right. No employer can stop you. WAGETru makes it safe, anonymous, and useful for everyone.