For decades, money talk at work has been considered taboo. It’s still a hush-hush topic whispered about in break rooms, if at all. But a new survey by résumé-building service Kickresume suggests that the next generation isn’t playing by those old rules. While only 31% of employees globally say pay is openly discussed at their workplace, Gen Z is leading a quiet revolution in transparency. Nearly 40% of Gen Z respondents say they freely talk about salaries, compared to 30% of Millennials and just 22% of Gen Xers.
Even when the subject is off-limits, 18% of Gen Z workers admit they go ahead and talk pay anyway. And geographically, the divide is just as striking! Only 27% of Americans say salaries are openly discussed, compared to 34% of Europeans and 24% of Asians.
The takeaway? The U.S. may still lead in keeping pay discussions under wraps but Gen Z is starting to crack the code of silence.
Image Courtesy – Freepik
Why it matters
In the past, compensation was treated as deeply private. Employers preferred this discretion and many employees accepted it as a workplace norm. But research suggests hiding pay details can undermine performance.
For forward-looking companies, then, pay transparency isn’t just a “feel-good” initiative. It’s a strategic lever. When employees trust that compensation practices are fair and open (or at least reasonably so), morale, retention and productivity benefit. On the flip side, continued secrecy amid a culture of openness may breed resentment, suspicion or even retention problems with younger talent.
What it means for employers
So what should an employer in 2026 do? Here are key take-aways:
Evaluate your pay-disclosure stance. If your company prohibits discussing pay, you may be swimming against a cultural tide especially when the youngest employees feel more comfortable talking about money than their leadership.
Be proactive with salary ranges. As job-postings increasingly list compensation bands, companies that hide them can appear outdated or worse, untrustworthy.
Prepare for conversations. Transitioning to openness means tackling disparities and explaining rationale: why roles are paid at certain levels, how raises are determined, etc. The conversations may be uncomfortable, but the alternative is worse: silent frustration.
Align transparency with fairness. If you go public with compensation practices, you must deliver equitable pay. Otherwise, transparency becomes a magnifying lens on inequities (gender, race, tenure) you would rather manage privately.
Tailor to your culture. A high-trust, collaborative startup may sail into full transparency quickly; a large legacy organization may need a phased approach (for example: first release salary bands for new hires, then expand to incumbent roles). As the article indicates, smaller companies already fare better on pay-discussion openness.
If Gen Z is your next wave of talent, the message is clear. Pay is not taboo. Today’s generation expects open conversations, or at least the change to engage in them. For companies, the choice is no longer between why and if, but how to do so fairly.
