May My Employer In Manhattan Prohibit Me From Asking About Discussing Or Disclosing My Salary Or The Salary Of Another Employee?

Your employer in Manhattan may not prohibit you from discussing your salary or the salary of another employee. Section 7 of the Federal National Labor Relations Act or the NLRA prohibits an employer from interfering with their employee’s right to self-organization, including their freedom to engage in concerted activities for collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection. This does not just refer to formal activities like forming a union. Among other things, section 7 of the NLRA also protects your right to have informal discussions with your coworkers regarding compensation without fear of retaliation.

More specifically, section 7 of the NLRA states that “employees shall have the right to engage in concerted activities for collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” Section 8(a) of the NLRA renders that an unlawful labor practice for an employer “to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of their rights guaranteed in” section 7 of the NLRA. That is, sections 7 and 8(a) of the NLRA protect employees who “engage in concerted activities for collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection.” Notably, section 7 and 8(a) of the NLRA does not just protect employees who engage in union activities or work in a unionized environment. This federal statute also protects non-unionized employees to engage in concerted activities for “mutual aid and protection.”

Consequently, even though employees are not union members, when they engage in concerted activities for mutual aid and protection, they are protected by sections 7 and 8(a) of the NLRA. Activity is “concerted” when the employee engages in the activity “with or on the authority of other employees and not solely by and on behalf of the employee himself.” The definition of “concerted activity” “encompasses those circumstances where individual employees seek to initiate or to induce or to prepare for group action as well as individual employees bringing truly group complaints for the attention of management.”

If you are an executive or a professional in the Manhattan, NYC metro area and you believe that you have been wrongfully terminated or that you’ve been denied salary, bonuses, commissions, or other wages that are owed to you, call Manhattan Employment Lawyer David S. Rich at (347) 835-5688 today.

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