Reveal Marketing Research study: 7 out of 10 employees know or would like to know their co-workers’ salaries
Through the latest nationally representative study, Reveal Marketing Research aimed to create an effective and comprehensive picture of a hotly debated and high-interest topic at the moment, namely, wage discrimination in the workplace.
On March 30, 2023, the European Parliament adopted in plenary a set of mandatory measures regarding transparency and wage equality. Thus, the new legislation will require EU companies to disclose useful information to employees in order to be able to compare salaries and expose differences in remuneration between women and men.
- 50% of Romanian employees know their co-workers’ salaries, and 38% of those who do not know them would like to have information in this regard
- 1 in 2 employees have heard of the measures regarding transparency and wage equality adopted by the European Parliament
- 46% of employees declare that there is a gender pay gap for similar positions at their current job
Romanian employees show openness to the prohibition of salary secrecy
According to data from the study conducted by Reveal Marketing Research, 50% of Romanian employees state that they know what their co-workers’ salaries are, and to a significantly lower extent employees over 55 (35%). Turning our attention to the other half of employees who do not know the salaries of others, 38% of them say they would like to have information in this regard.
It can be observed a gradual decrease of the interest in finding out the salaries of other colleagues with advancing age, the most interested being young people aged between 18-24 years (58%) and 25-35 years (45%), and at the pole opposite the most disinterested being mature people over 55 (28%). This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that, in general, young people are more active in looking for development opportunities and attractive financial benefits, while mature people value stability and job security to a greater extent.
Other significant differences appear if we refer to the area of residence or gender, both those from the urban environment (40% vs. 30% rural) and women (43% vs. 33% men) showing a greater desire for salary transparency .
5 out of 10 Romanian employees have heard of the measures regarding transparency and wage equality adopted by the European Parliament
Starting from the goals of combating wage discrimination in the workplace and eliminating the gender wage gap (which in 2020 reached the threshold of 13% in the EU over women), the European Parliament adopted a set of measures on transparency and wage equality.
In this context, half of the Romanian employees (47%) declare that they have heard of these measures adopted by the European Parliament. On a closer look, we notice that men (52% vs. 42% women) and those from urban areas (50% vs. 36% rural) are more informed.
Moreover, 46% of employees state that they have observed gender pay disparities for similar positions at their current workplace, this being mentioned to a significantly greater extent by employees in urban areas (48% vs. 36% in rural areas). On the other hand, 43% declare that they have not noticed such salary differences, especially those over 55 (61%), and a proportion of 11% admit that they do not know information in this regard.
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About Reveal Marketing Research
Reveal Marketing Research is a full-service market research company, specialized in market research, sociological studies, customer insight, business strategy, market development. With expertise in over 20 industries, Reveal Marketing Research believes that market research is the basis for the right decisions and brand positioning. Qualitative and quantitative solutions have been helping companies in Romania and Europe for 14 years.
Methodology: The Reveal Marketing Research study was conducted online 05-11.04.2023 on a representative sample for the universe of people aged 18+, urban and rural residents that are employed. The sample size was 730 respondents, and the maximum sampling error is +/- 3.6% at a 95% confidence level.