Who says you aren't supposed to share your salary? Your employer? It's legal to share your salary, and illegal for your employer to stop you or retaliate against you in the US (unless you are in management).

My parents and in laws. It’s a really, really big thing for their generation. You never share it, or ask.

It’s less of an issue with younger generation, but still important to be careful.

I still think it’s good etiquette not sharing it. Either you humiliate yourself or you come off as bragging

It really depends on the intention you have for sharing your salary. I have friends who want to get into software engineering and they ask me my salary history. Compared to industry standard, my salary is average at best, so it's a pitiful thing to brag about (not that money is ever not a pitiful thing to brag about)

If you're at a party and no one is asking, certainly don't share it. Nothing is worse than being at a party with a guy who constantly says "By the way, I make $500k at Facebook"

If for some reason salary is important to the conversation (for example talking about crypto or investing or just money in general) then sharing it can be appropriate.

But the most important thing imo is that you read the room: if it's likely the people you're talking with make less than you, then probably don't share it, and certainly never complain about money or the price of things. If it's likely they are well off as well, then sure, complain about your mid-six-figure salary

It’s important to be careful. But I’ve asked many people to tell me their how much they make, and how they got there.

If you’re polite about it, it not a huge issue.

Does this work in practice? There are surely lots of subtle ways an employer could retaliate against you that would be really hard to prove as retaliatory actions.

I would have assumed US law has some kind of hostile work environment protection, but according to wikipedia this only applies if the employee has been "treated in a hostile manner because of their membership in a protected class".

I worked in two different countries in European Union, and in both as far as I can tell (ianal) it’s perfectly legal to share salary information. Labor code states what the limits of what you can do are, and also that the contract can not be more restrictive than the labor code is.

However, this myth of illegality of sharing your salary information has been perpetuated by the employers to maintain an upper hand in negotiations. And it’s what keeps down the TCs in Europe, in my opinion.

>However, this myth of illegality of sharing your salary information has been perpetuated by the employers to maintain an upper hand in negotiations. And it’s what keeps down the TCs in Europe, in my opinion.

I don't think that's what keeps down the TC in Europe, because what you are describing is exactly the case in the US as well.

It is 100% legal to share your comp with anyone, and it is illegal for an employer to prohibit that or fire you for it or retaliate in any other way. And yet, a giant chunk of the population lives under a myth that they can get in trouble for sharing their comp info, even when the employer doesn't insinuate so or imply that at all.

I know some small employers might (illegally) try to imply that it isn't allowed (despite it being illegal, but those bosses are either ignorant or threading a fine line with the law), but I've even met some people working at FAANG-tier companies believing that sharing comp numbers is prohibited (despite FAANG-tier companies never even subtly implying that it isn't allowed).