I'm generally in favor of making information public. I work for a public university, and my salary is public info, so is everyone else's. The sky hasn't fallen.
Real estate transactions tend to be public as well. I can look up how much the house down the street sold for. Imagine if this information were not public, but a few insiders were able to get at it. They'd have a monumental advantage over everyone else. That's kind of the position employers are in relative to employees.
One angle on this - I think that any employer that uses the H1B or other worker visas should be obligated to share compensation information for all workers (not just the visa recipients), the same way public universities and government organizations are required to. That means name, job title, and total yearly compensation.
Real estate transactions tend to be public as well. I can look up how much the house down the street sold for. Imagine if this information were not public, but a few insiders were able to get at it. They'd have a monumental advantage over everyone else. That's kind of the position employers are in relative to employees.
One angle on this - I think that any employer that uses the H1B or other worker visas should be obligated to share compensation information for all workers (not just the visa recipients), the same way public universities and government organizations are required to. That means name, job title, and total yearly compensation.