> they are legally prohibited from banning sharing of employee salaries (as long as you are sharing your own information, not others)

Do you have a source for this?

https://www.dol.gov/wb/media/pay_secrecy.pdf is a good summary, starting with discussion of the federal situation and then quoting state law

here's the executive order mentioned at the beginning of the linked PDF: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/0...

here's NPR on the topic: http://www.npr.org/2014/04/13/301989789/pay-secrecy-policies...

here's the atlantic on the topic: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/when-th...

From the Atlantic article: Gag rules are a "widespread, illegal problem that the law has failed to address for decades. Gag rules violate a fundamental labor right and allow for discriminatory pay schemes."

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In the UK, apparently the situation is similar. From http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1811 , "The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to prevent employees from having discussions to establish if there are differences in pay. However, an employer can require their employees to keep pay rates confidential from people outside of the workplace."

here is the paragraph of UK law referred to: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/77

Thanks very much for those. It's very interesting to see how despite the legislation, it's still commonplace for pay-talk to be frowned upon in the workplace.