Yes, You Should Share Your Salary. Here's Why (And How)

Do you have a growing sense that you’re not being paid what you’re worth? Ever wondered how your paycheque compares to your coworkers’? Or if you’re being quietly shortchanged? For many, the first step in answering those questions is simple. Start talking about money.

“If no one talks about how much they make, how would anyone know they’re being underpaid?” says Allison Venditti, a former HR professional and founder of Moms at Work, a career platform that supports women through professional development and salary negotiation. Salary transparency is widely recognized as one of the most effective tools for driving pay equity. When workers share what they earn, it forces disparities into the open, which gives employees better footing in negotiations and pressures employers to explain or correct discrepancies. In Canada, studies show that public–sector salary disclosures have helped reduce gender pay gaps by as much as 40 per cent.

However, navigating these conversations—whether with a colleague or a boss—can be fraught and awkward. Venditti, along with employment lawyer Lior Samfiru of Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, unpacks how to broach the topic, when to speak up and what protections exist when things go sideways.

Why should you talk about your salary?

According to Venditti, secrecy is how inequality thrives. When workers talk openly about pay, discrepancies often come to light, sometimes in shocking ways. “Several women in my group found out they were being paid $40,000 to $50,000 less than their male counterparts,” she says. “The only reason they knew was because they started comparing numbers.”

Pay gaps remain significant across demographic groups. Statistics Canada showed that women in Canada earned 88 cents for every dollar that men made in 2024; and Indigenous women made just 74 cents cents for every dollar earned by non-Indigenous men. For racialized women, it’s 72 cents compared to racialized men. Women with disabilities earn about 80 cents to the dollar compared to men with disabilities. 

Venditti is blunt about where the blame lies. “It’s not the result of an individual’s failure to negotiate. Someone made a deliberate decision to pay them less,” she says.

Is it even legal to share your salary?

In every Canadian province except Manitoba and New Brunswick, employees have the legal right to discuss their salaries with co-workers. “Employers can no longer punish workers for discussing their pay internally,” says Samfiru. 

Yet, even with the law on their side, workers may still face pushback. Samfiru oversaw a recent case where a woman talked about her salary with colleagues, prompting them to raise questions with their employer about the pay discrepancies they discovered. In response, the woman was slapped with a formal write-up and warned not to disclose her pay again. The employer claimed it was confidential information and, if it happened again, she could be terminated for cause. “We advised her that that’s not legal,” says Samrifu. “She’s allowed, in fact, to speak about her salary, and that warning and that threat by her employer are not allowed.” Samrifu’s firm then sent a letter on the woman’s behalf, outlining the legal protections in place. The employer ultimately rescinded the warning.

Pay transparency laws are relatively new. The problem, Samfiru says, is that many employers still believe they can enforce silence. “It’s fairly common for employers to believe that they still have the ability to order employees not to disclose their salaries and to punish those employees if they do disclose.”

However, posting how much you make on social media is another matter. While internal conversations are legally protected, posting your salary online—especially if your employer can be identified—can fall outside the bounds of protection. “An employer could have a policy that says you cannot disclose your salary to the world at large, and if you do disclose it, there are going to be penalties,” he says, and adds that such a policy would be legally sound.

Even without naming names, an employer can connect the dots. “A quick Google, LinkedIn or Facebook search can reveal who your employer is. If your company has a policy and they care, they can get you into trouble,” he says. 

Now, how do I talk to my coworker about it?

There’s no one-size-fits-all way to start a salary conversation, but Venditti recommends keeping it playful. Her go-to is to play the over-under game. “‘Do you make over $100,000 or under $100,000?’ That’s it,” she says. “It’s a fun game that showed several women in our group that they were underpaid.” 

Others might prefer a direct, transparent approach. “Tell your colleague, ‘I want to make sure that we’re all treated fairly, that we’re not being taken advantage of, and I think it’s important that we can discuss how much we’re earning,’” says Samrifu. “‘So here’s my salary, and I’d love for you to share that with me as well.’” 

What’s important, both experts agree, is that the conversation stays voluntary. “You should never pressure a colleague to disclose their pay, because it can be construed as workplace harassment,” says Samrifu. 

I just found out I’m being underpaid. What should I do next? 

Shockingly, many people do nothing. “There’s a fear of upsetting the employer. A fear of having an uncomfortable discussion. A fear of being penalized,” says Samfiru. Some opt to look for a new job instead of raising the issue. Others assume they have no legal standing.

He urges employees to raise the issue anyway—but to do so in writing. It’s crucial to document every interaction. “If you and your employer discuss it over a phone call, write back and say, ‘Confirming our discussion today at 5 p.m., where you told me the following…’ You want to create a written record so that later, if the employer tries to do something, you have it documented,” he says. “You never want it to be a he-said-she-said situation.” 

Pay differences are not inherently unfair. Many companies use structured salary bands, which allow for some pay variation within a defined role, depending on tenure, years of experience, specialized skills or performance metrics. The issue, Vendretti says, is when those structures are hidden or inconsistently applied, or if the disparities are too wide. “Transparency doesn’t mean everyone gets paid the same,” she says. “It means being able to understand how pay decisions are made.”

When an employer doesn’t give a clear justification, then it could be an unjustified wage gap. Worse, if the disparity correlates with gender, race or ethnicity, it may constitute a human rights violation. 

What if I face backlash from my employer?

Despite legal protections, some employers still try to cloak retaliation behind other reasons. “The most common way is by saying the punishment is unrelated to the disclosure,” says Samfiru. “But if you disclose your salary and are let go soon after—and no one else is—then the employer has some explaining to do.” 

In most cases, the employer won’t be upfront. “It’s going to be very rare for an employer to say, ‘I let you go because you told your coworker how much you were making.’ They’ll say it was restructuring, or cost-cutting,” he Samfiru. “But if it looks like a duck and acts like a duck—it’s probably a duck.” This is where having everything in writing is important. 

Is salary transparency becoming the norm?

Not yet—but change is underway. Samfiru and Venditti observe that younger workers tend to be more open about salaries than their older peers, who often see money as a private matter. As new laws are introduced and cultural attitudes evolve, the tide is turning. B.C. and P.E.I. legally require companies to disclose salaries in job postings, while Ontario will enforce the practice in 2026. (Newfoundland passed pay equity legislation in 2022, but its regulations have not yet been implemented.)

For Venditti, this movement is long overdue. “The shame of being underpaid has been placed on workers for too long,” she says. “Transparency helps put that responsibility back where it belongs—on the employers making those decisions.”