When public‐sector salaries become public knowledge: Academic salaries and Ontario's Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act

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Abstract: The effects of salary disclosure on public‐sector compensation have long been a source of controversy in political and academic circles. Some commentators suggest that because of political pressure and closer public scrutiny, salary disclosure is a good thing because it results in pay that is both lower than it would otherwise be and more sensitive to performance. On the other hand, disclosure raises serious privacy considerations and could also have an inflationary effect on salaries unless all elements in a causal chain linking public knowledge and lower pay are firmly in place. In this study, the authors examine the implications of Ontario's Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act with respect to university‐sector salaries. The main conclusions are that salary disclosure, in general, and in the academic sector in particular, has never fully accounted for proper comparability issues and has not been updated to reflect adjustments for inflation. The act also raises important questions of privacy that have not been fully addressed. Perhaps most notably, there is no evidence suggesting that salary disclosure has much of an influence in off‐setting other factors affecting salary growth.