On Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:15:38 -0800, Darren New wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Here in the US, salary information is between you and your employer
> 
> Really?  I'm not sure that's correct.  Certainly if you're looking to
> (for example) sell a small company, the buyer is going to want to know
> the salaries of the people he'll be taking on, yes?

Perhaps in M/A land there are exceptions - or they know how many people 
they are and the aggregate salaries/payroll budget, but in M/As (as is my 
understanding) there are very specific times at which particular types of 
information can be disclosed.

The laws may also vary depending on where the companies are incorporated 
- if both are incorporated in the same state, then it may be down to 
state laws rather than federal laws.

Of course, IANAL, so I could be completely wrong on this - but I'm pretty 
sure there's a confidentiality clause about salary information.  Most 
companies strongly discourage employees from even talking about their 
salaries with their peers.

But my point is that I don't believe company A could call up the HR 
department at company B and say "John Doe has told us his salary is 
$74,000 a year - can you confirm this?" - for one thing, that could open 
John up to some sort of retribution from his current employer for looking 
for a new job - most US states are "at will", which means your employer 
can pretty much let you go for any reason - and even for no reason.  
Utah's like that - the worker protections in the US (if you're not in a 
union) are practically nonexistent unless you can prove racial/age/some 
other form of legally recognised discrimination.

Jim

Jim

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