Can Employees Legally Share Pay Information With Each Other?

Can employees discuss their pay with each other? Yes. The National Labor Relations Act protects most nonsupervisory employees who share or compare their wages with coworkers, in person, in writing or online, whether or not there’s a union. Employers can’t fire, discipline or threaten employees for it, and “pay is confidential” rules that say otherwise can be illegal on their own.

That protection has real teeth. In May 2026, a federal appeals court upheld the NLRB’s finding that a software company illegally fired an engineer less than two hours after management discovered the pay-sharing spreadsheet he started with coworkers. State pay transparency laws in New York, New Jersey and Maryland add protections of their own. Here’s what employers can and can’t do when employees disclose pay information to each other, and the steps to take next.

Key Takeaways

• Employees have a federal right to share pay information, including through a shared salary spreadsheet, whether or not there is a union.
• A federal appeals court upheld a finding that a software company illegally fired the engineer who started a salary spreadsheet. He was fired roughly 70 to 90 minutes after management found it.
• Calling it an "attitude" problem didn't work. The court rejected the company's explanations as cover for retaliating against protected activity.
• The company won a partial, technical reversal. Three coworkers fired the next day over their group chats got their case sent back to the NLRB, because the Board relied on a broader theory than the complaint charged.
• Reinstatement was ordered even though the engineer had a new job. Because the company's reasons were a pretext, it had no legitimate basis to refuse to take him back.
• State pay transparency laws add another layer. New York, New Jersey and Maryland, among others, protect pay discussions and require pay ranges in job postings.

What Happened: A Salary Spreadsheet, a Firing in Under Two Hours and Three More the Next Day

In February 2022, a Vermont software company that builds systems for the beverage industry was rolling out a restructuring. One of its software engineers wasn't happy with the new role management had planned for him. He'd had tense conversations with his supervisors and mentioned that he had offers from other companies.

Afterward, he vented to a coworker in a chat. The coworker asked him a simple question: how much do you make? The answer was $95,000. The coworker made $87,000.

The engineer had an idea. Why not put everyone's salary in one place? The coworker liked it. As he put it, the point was that if you wanted to ask for a raise, you'd have something to compare against.

How the salary spreadsheet spread

The two engineers and two other coworkers entered their names, positions and salaries into a shared online spreadsheet. The next morning, around the company's all-hands meeting announcing the restructuring, they shared the link. About 25 coworkers added their own information. Someone added a note that "100%" of developers were underpaid.

It didn't take long for the spreadsheet to reach management. A supervisor passed it up to the development director, who showed it to the operations director at 11:26 a.m. The executives assumed the engineer who created it had written the "100%" note. Nobody checked. The chief financial officer called the spreadsheet inaccurate and pointless.

Fired less than two hours after management saw the salary spreadsheet

By 11:32 a.m., the spreadsheet had been disabled and the engineer's accounts were shut off. By about noon, he was fired. The reasons given were his "attitude" and his "feeling towards" the company during the restructuring.

Three coworkers fired the next day over their group chats

The engineer's three coworkers were furious, and they said so in a group chat. They talked about the spreadsheet, their salaries and the firing. They also talked about quitting, criticized management in colorful terms and discussed sharing their complaints with a former employee who now worked for a customer.

The next day, the company's IT director forwarded the chats to management. Executives reviewed them along with the spreadsheet and old performance reviews. One review from two years earlier included an employee's description of the company as a "loveless exchange of labor for currency." That afternoon, all three were fired. There was no further investigation.

Then a manager told the remaining employees that they were still free to share their salary information.

All four filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB Case No. 03-CA-301055).

What would your managers do if a salary spreadsheet showed up tomorrow? If the honest answer is "shut it down," your organization has the same exposure. Our Employee Relations Support Program helps managers respond to pay discussions and complaints without creating a retaliation claim. Take our free Workplace Diagnostic Questionnaire or schedule a confidential consultation.

What Did the Court Decide About Firing an Employee for Sharing Salaries?

An administrative law judge and then the NLRB found that all four firings were illegal and ordered all four employees reinstated with backpay. The company appealed. On May 26, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the finding for the engineer who started the spreadsheet and sent the other three firings back to the Board (D.C. Cir. No. 24-1360).

Firing the employee who created the salary spreadsheet was illegal

The company admitted the spreadsheet played a part in the decision. Its defense was that it would have fired the engineer anyway. The court rejected each reason the company offered:

• His attitude and how he went about it. Objecting to the way an employee engages in protected activity isn't a defense.

• Using company computers for personal reasons. The executives never cited this when they fired him, and the company had no record of disciplining anyone else for it.

• The spreadsheet was misleading. The Board found it wasn't materially inaccurate, and the "100%" note was an opinion.

• His hostility and job offers. Before the spreadsheet, management was planning his new role, not his exit.

The timing sealed it. Management had planned to keep him. Seventy to 90 minutes after seeing the spreadsheet, it fired him.

Why the other three firings went back to the NLRB

This is where the company won. The complaint charged that all four were fired for creating and sharing the spreadsheet. The Board found the other three were fired for their chats about the spreadsheet, the firing and "workplace conditions" generally.

The court said chats about the spreadsheet and the firing were closely tied to the charged conduct, so the Board could consider them. But "workplace conditions" was broad enough to cover the chats about quitting, criticizing management and talking to a customer's employee, which the company never had a chance to defend against. In the court's words, "the Board stretched the charged conduct beyond its breaking point." Those three findings were vacated and sent back to the NLRB, which received the case back in October 2026.

That's not a win on the merits. The Board can still decide the three were fired illegally on a properly charged theory.

Can an employer be ordered to reinstate an employee who has a new job?

The engineer had found another job and didn't want to return. The court still upheld the reinstatement order. Because the company's stated reasons were a pretext, it had no legitimate basis to refuse to take him back.

The employer's challenge to the NLRB's remedy failed

The company also tried to challenge the NLRB's expanded remedy, which compensates employees for out-of-pocket losses beyond backpay, such as job-search costs. The court held the company hadn't properly raised that challenge before the Board, so it couldn't raise it on appeal. One judge dissented on that point and would have struck that part of the remedy.

Can Employees Legally Share Their Salaries?

Yes. Under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, most nonsupervisory employees have the right to discuss their pay, benefits and working conditions with each other, in person, in writing or online. A salary spreadsheet is a modern version of a conversation in the break room. Comparing pay is one of the most basic forms of concerted activity, because it's usually the first step toward asking for a raise together.

This applies to nonunion employers, and most of the NLRA's protections reach even very small businesses, as we explain in what size company needs to worry about labor law compliance. Growing companies often don't realize this until a charge arrives, as we explain in when multi-site employers outgrow their HR structure and 12 signs your HR doesn't understand labor law. The NLRB explains these employee rights the same way whether or not a union is present.

What employers can't do when employees discuss pay

• Fire, discipline or threaten employees for sharing or comparing pay.

• Maintain "pay secrecy" or "confidential compensation" rules that ban employees from discussing their own pay.

• Shut down or monitor employee pay conversations in a way that discourages them.

What employers can still do when employees share pay

• Require HR, payroll and managers who access other employees' pay records through their jobs to keep that information confidential.

• Protect genuinely confidential business information, such as customer data or trade secrets.

• Correct inaccurate information by communicating with employees, not by disciplining them.

• Discipline for misconduct unrelated to the protected activity, if the rule is applied consistently and the reason is real.

Pay transparency laws in New York, New Jersey and Maryland

Many states go further than federal law. (For a state-by-state overview, see our guide to pay transparency laws.) Among the states where CHRO's clients operate:

• New York prohibits employers from barring employees from discussing wages and requires pay ranges in job postings.

• New Jersey prohibits retaliation for discussing compensation and, since June 2025, requires pay ranges in job postings for covered employers.

• Maryland protects employees who discuss wages and, since October 2024, requires pay ranges in job postings.

Pay transparency laws make salary spreadsheets less shocking, but they also make it more important that pay decisions can be explained. For a related NLRB case about a small nonunion employer, see can you fire an employee for complaining? For more on pay equity reviews and pay secrecy rules, see our post on pay equity, benefits and accommodations under Title VII.

5 Mistakes Employers Make When Employees Share Pay Information

The company in this case reacted the way many employers would on instinct: shut it down, find out who started it, and remove the problem. Each step made the legal problem worse.

Reacting to a salary spreadsheet within the hour

Management went from first seeing the spreadsheet to firing its creator in roughly 70 to 90 minutes. That timeline made the connection between the protected activity and the firing almost impossible to deny. Timing is one of the most common ways employers lose workplace retaliation cases.

How to avoid it: When employees start comparing pay, slow down. Call HR or counsel before anyone touches an account, a document or a job. If a charge has already been filed, start with what to do first when a former employee files a retaliation claim.

Calling pay discussions an "attitude" problem

"Attitude" and "feelings toward the company" are vague, and when they show up right after protected activity, the NLRB reads them as code for the protected activity itself.

How to avoid it: If there is a real performance or conduct issue, it should already be documented before the protected activity happens. See the documentation that protects employers from lawsuits. If it isn't, that's not the moment to fire. Our manager training and coaching helps supervisors document issues as they happen.

Assuming instead of investigating

Executives assumed the engineer wrote the "100%" note and never checked. The next day, they fired three more employees after reading their chats, with no further investigation. Assumptions and quick reads of chat logs don't hold up as evidence.

How to avoid it: Investigate before deciding. Interview the employees, separate protected statements from real misconduct, and document what you find. Our guide on how to investigate a workplace complaint explains why internal investigations often fail.

Offering reasons after the fact

In litigation, the company pointed to computer use, misleading content and the engineer's hostility. None of those reasons appeared when he was fired, and the company had never disciplined anyone else for personal computer use. Reasons that appear only in litigation look like excuses.

How to avoid it: Make the reason clear at the time of the decision, state it in the termination letter, document it then, and make sure it's applied the same way to others. And if a fired employee says "I'll sue," read what employers should do when an employee threatens to sue.

Telling employees they can discuss pay only after firing them

After four employees were gone, a manager told everyone they were free to share salary information. That's the correct message, but it didn't undo the firings.

How to avoid it: Review handbooks and manager guidance now so supervisors know pay discussions are protected before a spreadsheet ever appears. Start with our list of common employee handbook mistakes, including pay secrecy rules. Our HR compliance audit checklist covers the rest of your HR policies.

Disciplining employees for chats found through monitoring

The company's IT director forwarded the employees' chats to management, and those chats became the basis for three firings. Employers can generally monitor company systems, but disciplining employees for protected discussions found in those systems is still illegal. Monitoring also isn't a substitute for an investigation.

What Should Employers Do When Employees Share Salary Information?

Employers should respond to a salary spreadsheet or pay discussion by reviewing their pay practices, not by disciplining the employees involved. These five steps keep the response lawful and useful:

1. Don't shut it down or discipline anyone. Leave the spreadsheet or conversation alone, and tell managers not to react until HR or counsel has weighed in.
2. Separate protected activity from real misconduct. Sharing pay is protected. Leaking customer data or trade secrets isn't. Investigate only genuine misconduct, and apply the same rules you've applied before.
3. Review what the information shows. If it reveals pay gaps by gender, race or another protected trait, or pay that doesn't match your stated ranges, address them with employment counsel.
4. Explain how pay is set. Share your pay ranges and the criteria for starting pay, raises and promotions. Employees who understand the structure are less likely to assume the worst.
5. Fix the policies that caused the problem. Remove pay secrecy language from handbooks and offer letters, and train managers on what they can and can't say. Our guide to common employee handbook mistakes covers these rules.

Would your pay decisions hold up if employees compared notes? Through our Outsourced CHRO Program, CHRO helps employers review pay practices, update handbooks for state pay transparency laws and review terminations before they become NLRB charges. Schedule a confidential consultation.

How CHRO Helps Employers Handle Pay Transparency

CHRO, LLC is an attorney-led fractional HR firm. Through our Employee Relations Support Program and Outsourced CHRO Program, we help employers:

• Review terminations before they happen, especially when an employee recently raised concerns about pay or working conditions.

• Build defensible pay structures, including salary ranges and documented criteria for starting pay, raises and promotions.

• Run pay equity reviews with employment counsel so gaps are found and fixed before employees find them in a spreadsheet.

• Update handbooks and confidentiality rules to remove pay secrecy language and comply with state pay transparency laws.

• Train managers on what to do, and what not to do, when employees start comparing pay.

Frequently Asked Questions About Employees Sharing Pay

Is it illegal for employees to share their salaries?

No. The National Labor Relations Act protects most nonsupervisory employees who discuss or compare their pay, benefits and working conditions, whether or not they have a union. Many state laws, including in New York, New Jersey and Maryland, add their own protections. An employer that disciplines employees for sharing pay information risks an NLRB charge and state law claims.

Can an employer have a pay confidentiality policy?

Not one that stops employees from discussing their own pay. Employers can require HR, payroll and others who access pay records through their jobs to keep other employees' pay confidential. Handbook language should make that distinction clear, because a broad "compensation is confidential" rule can itself be an NLRA violation. It's one of the employee handbook mistakes we see most often.

Is it illegal to fire an employee for discussing pay?

Yes, for most nonsupervisory employees. Firing, disciplining or threatening employees for discussing or comparing their pay violates the National Labor Relations Act, even in nonunion workplaces. New York, New Jersey, Maryland and other states also prohibit retaliation for wage discussions. An employee fired for it can file a charge with the NLRB and may be entitled to reinstatement and backpay.

Can employers fire an employee for creating a salary spreadsheet?

Not for creating or sharing it. In this case, a federal appeals court upheld the NLRB's finding that firing the engineer who started a salary spreadsheet was illegal. An employer can still act on unrelated, documented misconduct, but it has to show it would have made the same decision without the protected activity.

What if the shared pay information is wrong?

Inaccuracy alone usually doesn't remove protection. The NLRB found the spreadsheet in this case wasn't materially inaccurate and treated the "100% underpaid" note as opinion. An employer that believes pay information is wrong can respond by explaining its pay practices to employees, not by disciplining the people who shared it.

Are supervisors and managers protected when they share pay?

Generally not under the NLRA, which excludes supervisors and managers. State pay transparency and equal pay laws may still protect them, and disciplining a supervisor for refusing to stop employees from discussing pay can create its own NLRA problem.

Can employers monitor employee chats on company systems?

Generally yes, but what employers do with what they find is limited. Disciplining employees for protected discussions about pay or working conditions is illegal, even if those discussions happen on company systems. Monitoring practices should also comply with state notice requirements, such as New York's electronic monitoring notice law.

Do pay transparency laws require employers to share salaries?

Not individual salaries. Pay transparency laws in states such as New York, New Jersey and Maryland generally require employers to include a good-faith pay range in job postings, and some require sharing ranges for promotion opportunities or on request. They don't require employers to disclose what specific employees earn. They do make it easier for employees to compare their pay, which is why pay decisions need documented, job-related reasons.

The Bottom Line on Employees Sharing Salary Information

Two engineers compared salaries, built a spreadsheet and invited their coworkers to add to it. Within about two hours of seeing it, management had shut it down and fired the engineer who started it. A federal appeals court agreed with the NLRB that the firing was illegal and upheld his reinstatement, even though he had moved on to a new job.

Employees are going to compare pay. State pay transparency laws are making it easier, and the NLRA protects it in union and nonunion workplaces alike. The employers that come out ahead are the ones whose pay decisions can be explained, whose managers know not to react in the moment and whose terminations get a second look before they happen.

CHRO, LLC helps employers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, New York and nationwide build pay practices and termination processes that hold up. Schedule a confidential consultation to learn how our Employee Relations Support Program or Outsourced CHRO Program can help, or start with our free Workplace Diagnostic Questionnaire.

About CHRO, LLC

CHRO, LLC is an attorney-led fractional HR firm serving employers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, New York and nationwide. Through our Employee Relations Support Program and Outsourced CHRO Program, we help small and mid-size employers build pay practices that hold up when employees compare notes: documented pay ranges and criteria, pay equity reviews with employment counsel, handbooks updated for the NLRA and state pay transparency laws, manager training on pay discussions, and termination reviews before a decision becomes a retaliation claim or an NLRB charge.

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