Ideas worth spreading

2,254,506 views | David Burkus • TEDxUniversityofNevada

Why you should know how much your coworkers get paid

How much do you get paid? How does it compare to the people you work with? You should know, and so should they, says management researcher David Burkus. In this talk, Burkus questions our cultural assumptions around keeping salaries secret and makes a compelling case for why sharing them could benefit employees, organizations and society.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxUniversityofNevada, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

How much do you get paid? How does it compare to the people you work with? You should know, and so should they, says management researcher David Burkus. In this talk, Burkus questions our cultural assumptions around keeping salaries secret and makes a compelling case for why sharing them could benefit employees, organizations and society.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxUniversityofNevada, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

About the speaker

Management researcher

See speaker profile

David Burkus challenges the traditional and widely accepted principles of business management.

David Burkus | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016 | Book

Under New Management: How Leading Organizations Are Upending Business as Usual

Included in my book is an entire chapter that examines the trend of salary transparency in companies, including an interview with organizational leaders and a survey of the available research on the benefits and drawbacks of moving toward transparency.

Gowri Ramachandran | Penn State Law Review, Vol. 116, No. 4, p. 1043, 2012 | Article

"Pay Transparency"

Ramachandran outlines a persuasive legal case to pursue pay transparency as a proactive measure to eliminate discrimination (as opposed to the mostly reactive manner we’re currently using).

David Smith | Harvard Business Review, December 2015. | Article

"Most People Have No Idea Whether They’re Paid Fairly"

PayScale and HBR recently published a fascinating study of over 70,000 employees and found that most people are unsure of how their pay compares to others and feel that they’re being underpaid.

Adam Conover | Adam Ruins Everything | Watch

"Why you should tell everyone your salary"

Shortly after I finished the manuscript for my book, a friend sent me a link to this short comedy video. Adam lays out a similar, albeit more comical (and somewhat crude) version of the case for pay transparency.

Radio Free Leader | David Burkus | Listen

The power of transparency, with Dane Atkinson

In this interview entrepreneur Dane Atkinson, we discuss how to bring more transparency to any organization.

About TEDx

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community.

Find a TEDx event near you