At Brian Bader's orientation for a tech-support job with Apple Inc. three years ago, he says, human-resources managers ran down the list of guidelines workers were expected to follow. Don't use explicit language on calls with customers. Treat other employees with respect. And, he says, they told the assembled recruits, don't discuss your pay with co-workers.
布莱恩•巴德(Brian Bader)回忆说，三年前他在苹果公司(Apple Inc.)参加技术支持岗位的培训时，人力资源经理曾逐一历数了员工应当要遵守的一系列准则。比如说，与客户通话时不要使用露骨语言，对同事要尊重。他还说，人事经理告诫聚集一堂的新员工，不要与同事讨论自己的工资。
That last requirement backfired. 'It just made me more curious,' said Mr. Bader, 25 years old, who had been offered $12 per hour. Throughout the day's breaks, he surveyed his new colleagues about their wages, and learned that everyone was earning somewhere between $10 and $12 per hour. Apple declined to comment on internal policies.
然而，最后那条要求却产生了适得其反的效果。今年25岁的巴德如此说道：“它只是让我更好奇了。”他在整个日间休息时间里调查了新同事的工资，了解到每个人的薪资水平在每小时10至12美元之间（约合人民币62至74元），而他当时的工资为每小时12美元。苹果拒绝就内部政策置评。
That information became the basis of his decision to leave his job just three months later, after he realized -- thanks to the performance data managers shared with their teams every week -- that he was twice as productive as the lowest performer on the team, yet earned only 20% more.
这一信息成为了巴德仅在三个月后就决定离职的根据。由于经理每周都要和他们的团队分享业绩数据，他了解到自己的工作效率是其所在团队业绩最差者的两倍，而他的工资却只高出20%。
'It irked me. If I'm doing double the work, why am I not seeing double the pay?' said Mr. Bader, who is about to graduate from California State University, Sacramento.
巴德说：“那让我有些恼火。如果我干的活是别人的两倍，那我的工资怎么不是别人的两倍？”他即将从加州州立大学萨克拉门托分校(California State University, Sacramento)毕业。
Comparing salaries among colleagues has long been a taboo of workplace chatter, but that is changing as Millennials -- individuals born in the 1980s and 1990s -- join the labor force. Accustomed to documenting their lives in real time on social-media forums like Facebook and Twitter, they are bringing their embrace of self-disclosure into the office with them. And they're using this information to negotiate raises at their current employer or higher salaries when moving to a new job.
长期以来，同事之间的薪水比较一直都是办公室闲谈的禁忌。不过，随着“千禧一代”──出生于上世纪80年代和90年代的一代人──加入职场，这种状况逐渐发生了转变。他们习惯了在Facebook和Twitter等社交媒体平台上实时记录他们的生活，因此也将他们信奉的自我表露原则一同带入了职场。他们也利用这些信息在自己当前工作的企业商谈加薪或是在跳槽到新公司时提出更高的薪资要求。
Not surprisingly, many firms want to keep salary information private. They hope to retain the upper hand on salary negotiation and hope to keep flawed or even discriminatory compensation systems under wraps.
不出意料的是，许多企业都想将工资信息保密。他们希望在商谈薪资时保持优势地位，并希望隐匿存在着缺陷甚至是带有歧视的薪酬体系。
But for workers, information is power, and young people recognize this. 'People are much more willing to talk about pay than they were even 10 years ago,' says Kevin Hallock, director of the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell University and author of the 2012 book 'Pay: Why People Earn What They Earn and What You Can Do Now to Make More.'
然而，对于员工而言，信息就是力量，年轻人也意识到了这一点。康奈尔大学(Cornell University)薪酬研究所(Institute for Compensation Studies)主任凯文•哈洛克(Kevin Hallock)称：“大家比10年前还要更愿意谈论工资。”哈洛克也是2012年出版的《关于工资的二三事：如何提高你的工资收入》(Pay: Why People Earn What They Earn and What You Can Do Now to Make More)一书的作者。
Still, revealing pay can be risky business.
尽管如此，透露工资也可能是颇具风险的举动。
Pay differentials, when they become public, can engender resentment, envy and dissatisfaction among workers. One 2012 study by researchers at University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University examined more than 6,400 University of California employees once they became aware of a database listing staffers' salaries. Employees who were paid below the median were unhappy once they learned their colleagues' pay and were more likely to look for other jobs.
薪资差距一旦公之于众，可能会在员工当中引发怨恨、妒忌和不满。加州大学伯克利分校(University of California, Berkeley)与普林斯顿大学(Princeton University)的研究人员在2012年展开的一项研究中，调查了6,400名加州大学的毕业生在知道了一个列出员工工资的数据库后的反应。薪酬低于中值水平的员工一旦了解到其他同事的工资后会心生不满，更有可能去寻找其他工作。
While some of this information -- such as salaries of certain state employees -- has long been a matter of public record, the Internet has made it far more accessible, too, says Mr. Hallock. Sites where people post salaries and other feedback about employers, such as Glassdoor.com, also contribute to the sense that pay is no longer a private issue.
哈洛克说，虽然部分薪资信息，比如说某些政府职员的薪酬长期以来一直都属于公开记录，而互联网也使得这类信息更容易获得。此外，一些让人们“晒”薪水和公布对雇主其他评价的网站（例如Glassdoor.com）也推动了认为“工资不再是隐私”的观念。
When Dustin Zick, 25, was ready to leave his job in 2012 as a social-media specialist at BuySeasons Inc., a Milwaukee-based online retailer, he compared notes with 'five or six' trusted co-workers about their pay, and found most of them happy to divulge.
去年，在准备从密尔沃基(Milwaukee)的网络零售公司BuySeasons辞去社交媒体专员的工作时，达斯汀•齐克(Dustin Zick)与“五六个”信得过的同事交换了他们的工资信息，他发现他们中的大多数人都乐意透露。
Several of his colleagues, also looking for new opportunities, strategized together about what salaries they were aiming for and how to negotiate to get there. The conversations helped Mr. Zick achieve his target salary at his new position as a social-media manager at a hospitality company, he says.
齐克有几名同样也在寻找新机会的同事就他们的薪资目标以及如何与公司谈判来实现该目标共同制订了行动策略。齐克说，这些谈话帮助他在应聘一家酒店企业的社交媒体经理的新职位时获得了预期工资。
'There's a culture of transparency in my generation,' he says. And 'the younger you are, the more likely an employer will try to get you for cheap. So to know what your peers are making benefits all parties involved, except maybe the employer.'
齐克认为他们这一代人有一种透明文化。你越年轻，企业就越有可能试图把你当作廉价劳力，所以了解你同事挣多少钱有利于相关各方，当然或许雇主不在此列。
Companies may not like transparency, but they cannot outright bar rank-and-file employees from disclosing their pay internally or externally, under the federal National Labor Relations Act, says employment lawyer Charles Caulkins of law firm Fisher & Phillips. That means that an employee handbook or social-media policy barring workers from disclosing their pay is generally a violation, he says. (The rules are different for managers and supervisors, who can legally be prevented from disclosing pay.)
Fisher & Phillips律师事务所的就业律师查尔斯•考金斯(Charles Caulkins)指出，企业或许不喜欢工资透明，但是根据联邦政府《全国劳工关系法案》(National Labor Relations Act)，企业并不能完全禁止普通员工在企业内部或外部透露自己的薪资。考金斯说，这意味着那些禁止员工透露自己薪资的员工手册或社交媒体政策基本上都违反了该法案。（针对经理和主管的规定有所不同，防止他们泄露工资水平是合法的。）
Ultimately, says Mr. Hallock, compensation is an inexact science, determined by labor-market conditions, company budgets and individual employees' performance and turnover risk. Companies use salaries and raises to retain their high performers, but measuring performance itself is difficult, especially in fields that defy simple metrics like widgets built or customer-service calls answered.
哈洛克说道，从根本上讲，薪酬体系也是一门不精确的科学。它由劳动力市场状况、企业预算、各员工的表现以及员工流失率风险等因素所决定。企业通常利用高薪或加薪来留住业绩优异者，但是业绩考核本身就是件难事，在某些简单的衡量标准（例如完成的器件或应答的客服电话数量）行不通的领域尤为如此。
So one way for employers to head off internal politics: Be even more transparent.
因此，企业遏制内部政治的方法之一就是：行为更加透明。
New York data-analytics company SumAll makes pay scales and individual salaries open to everyone in the company. The company says that employees work more efficiently when no one is trying to guess whether their colleagues are making more than they are.
纽约数据分析公司SumAll将薪资等级和各员工的薪资向公司的每一个人公开。该公司称，当没人试图去猜测自己的同事是否比自己挣得多时，员工们工作起来会更有效率。
Workers and employers who support transparency argue that it helps ensure that people are paid fairly, and reduces discrimination based on gender or other characteristics.
支持薪酬透明的员工和企业认为，此举有助于确保大家获得公平的薪资并减少性别或其他特征方面的歧视。
Of course, not every employee is, or would be, willing to spill.
当然，并不是每个员工都愿意或可能愿意透露自己的工资。
Lucy Bayly, 43, a copywriter for an advertising agency in Oneonta, N.Y., compares discussions about income with conversations about sex: 'You're dying to know, but it's too rude to ask.'
纽约州奥尼昂塔(Oneonta)某广告公司43岁的文案露西•巴以利(Lucy Bayly)把讨论工资与讨论性爱放在了一起比较。她说：“你太想知道情况了，但是开口问就太粗鲁了。”
Such conversations run the risk of inspiring a corrosive kind of jealousy, she says. 'You think you're satisfied and then all of a sudden, you find out someone is paid a little more, and it ruins your day because you start wondering, 'Have I settled?' '
巴以利认为，此类谈话有激发强烈嫉妒的风险。她说：“本来你觉得自己挺满足的，然后突然间发现别人的工资比你高一点，这会让你一天都不好过，因为你会开始思考‘我满足了吗？’” 下页是谈论工资的技巧。

如何在工作场所谈论工资
How to Discuss Pay at Work

以建设性的方式提出工资话题的小技巧：
Tips for bringing up the subject in a constructive way:
与同事谈论薪资时：
When talking about salary with coworkers:
1.只和你信任的人谈论工资。
1. Reserve these conversations for people you trust
2.了解你自己的目的，如果你只是想炫耀一番，还是别提出这个话题了，那从来都不会有什么好结果。
2. Know your motivation─don't bring up the topic if you just want to brag. That never goes over well.
3.如果你打算利用该信息与老板商谈工资，首先要征得你同事的允许。
3. If you plan to use the information to negotiate with your boss, ask your colleagues' permission first.
4.愿意接受失望或尴尬。你可能会发现你的工资不如同事高。
4. Be willing to be disappointed or embarrassed. You might find out that your salary falls short of your peer's.
与主管谈论薪资时：
When talking about salary with a manager:
1.向主管询问公司的薪资理念和薪资制订惯例并无不妥。领导层应能解释他们为什么这么制定工资。
1. It's acceptable to ask a manager about the company's pay philosophy and pay practices. Leaders should be able to explain why they pay the way they do.
2.如果你打算要求加薪，漂亮地完成项目后再提出要求。
2. If you're asking for a raise, do it after acing a project.
3.了解公司的处境。如果公司刚宣布的季度财报非常糟糕，不要提加薪要求。
3. Understand the company context. Don't ask for a raise if the company just announced a terrible quarter.
4.不要辜负同事的信任。
4. Don't betray your co-workers' confidence.