Today's Wall Street Journal reported an announcement by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis that her agency will work next year to enact a laundry list of new rules to protect workers from unfair employers. While it's clear that some, perhaps most, of these rules are designed to aid the Obama administration's labor union allies, one phrase caught my eye. The Journal reported some of these rules will require employers to "increase disclosure to workers on how their pay is computed."
I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty basic to me, and it doesn't sound like something we need a national labor law to achieve. Why would any employer be unwilling to share that kind of information with the affected employees? I can't imagine an employer not being willing to tell an employee how they determined the wage they propose to pay (or are paying, for that matter). Either the reporter got their facts twisted around, or there is more to this part of the story than meets the eye. Am I being naive here? I know some business owners are sometimes less than straightforward with their workers, but there has to be a point to it, after all. Building mistrust without any return seems like a fool's path indeed.
Perhaps we'll hear more as this story develops.
As always, I welcome your comments.
