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In this era of constant demands that we stop working from home and return to the office, flexibility has become a top priority for workers, but not as much as pay transparency, if recent trends are any indication.

One CEO says pay transparency is not only becoming workers’ number one issue, but that it’s crucial for employers to get over the taboos around it and start embracing it if they want to compete in our punishing economy.

Why most workers lose respect for a boss who’s not willing to show pay transparency.

When Monster.com’s 2026 WorkWatch Report recently came out, one topic loomed heavily among the yearly survey’s answers: Workers are struggling financially, even those who are paid well.

Nearly 6 in 10 workers said their salary is not keeping up with our staggering inflation, which has led to some incredibly difficult decisions: More than 1 in 5 said they cut back on retirement contributions in 2025, and 16% said they took on a second job to try to keep up.

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This is fueling a major push among workers to ask for more money from their current jobs or to seek a new one with better pay. And coming with that push is an increasing demand for pay transparency in workplaces, especially in the hiring process.

Josh Peacock, co-founder of salary research site SalaryGuide, says this is ultimately coming down to one unavoidable fact: “Employees are questioning why salary information is still treated as taboo, especially at a time when financial strain is becoming harder to ignore.”

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The CEO says in our inflationary economy, salary transparency cannot be optional anymore.

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Peacock’s take touches on something so obvious it shouldn’t need to be said: When everything from groceries to utilities has once again skyrocketed over the past year, it is patently absurd for anyone to pretend we aren’t all struggling.

And yet acting as if things are normal continues to be the order of the day. But Peacock says surveys like Monster’s show this is not going to cut it any longer. “Salary transparency has moved from being a ‘nice-to-have’ to a baseline requirement,” he says. “When inflation is outpacing wages, ambiguity around pay doesn’t just feel outdated, it feels unfair.”

The job search process, in particular, has become wildly manipulative. You basically have to be a mind reader to have any idea what’s going on at any point in the process. That’s hard to swallow in normal times, let alone times like ours. And Peacock says it’s in employers’ own best interest to knock it off.

“The traditional model, where salary details only surface during annual reviews or behind closed doors, no longer aligns with how people navigate work today,” he says. “When employees don’t understand where they sit within a pay structure, it creates anxiety and mistrust.” And that, in turn, creates low engagement and higher turnover, which in turn costs companies in productivity and personnel costs.

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Lack of pay transparency also pushes workers into second jobs and side hustles, further reducing productivity.

As Peacock puts it, “when salary information is vague, people fill in the gaps themselves,” whether that’s forming preconceived expectations that make them angry when they go unfulfilled, or forcing workers to take on second jobs because they have no idea if they’ll be able to get a raise.

“That’s when employers lose control of the narrative,” he warns. “Clear salary bands and open conversations make negotiations easier, not harder. They allow employees to see what’s achievable and when.” That builds trust and confidence rather than vitriol and suspicion.

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He also describes pay transparency as a sort of “filter,” in both directions: It helps weed out workers who aren’t the right fit for open roles, and it helps companies identify their own shortcomings that result in people quitting or turning down offers.

“The real problem is staying silent and expecting people to remain loyal without understanding their value,” he says. Of course, most employers don’t care and have no incentive to in an economy where everyone is terrified of losing their job.

But that economy will shift eventually, and when it does, these unfair, disrespectful, and outdated approaches to the very reason people have jobs in the first place — their paychecks — are going to become a business-crushing albatross around the necks of American employers. Don’t say nobody warned you, fatcats.

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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.