The Wage Transparency Movement: What Forward-Thinking Companies Gain by Opening the Books

Wage transparency is gaining momentum as more companies recognize its potential to strengthen both culture and performance. What started as a compliance requirement in some regions is becoming a proactive choice for businesses that want to lead with integrity.

Transparent compensation practices help employees understand how decisions are made and where they stand. This clarity builds trust: something every workplace needs to retain talent, support engagement, and grow responsibly.

Transparency is ultimately about alignment. When a company’s pay practices reflect its values, employees feel seen and respected. That sense of alignment reinforces a shared purpose and makes it easier to move together toward long-term goals.

This evolution often begins quietly: A decision to run an internal audit. A conversation with a new hire about salary bands. A spreadsheet that helps managers spot and close equity gaps. These choices might seem small, but they build momentum. Over time, they shape culture and raise the bar for what business leadership can look like.

Wage transparency fits squarely within the spirit of this year’s Champions Retreat. It highlights how steady, behind-the-scenes work—especially when rooted in equity—can ripple outward and create lasting impact.

Why Wage Transparency, Why Now?

Wage transparency refers to the practice of clearly communicating how compensation decisions are made. For some companies, that means publishing salary bands in job descriptions. Others take it further by conducting internal pay equity audits, sharing compensation philosophies with staff, or holding open conversations about how pay connects to performance and growth. These efforts don’t all look the same, but they point in the same direction: toward clarity, consistency, and fairness.

Several forces are accelerating this shift. Employees expect fairness and clarity, and they leave when they don’t feel it. According to Mercer’s 2023–24 Inside Employees’ Minds study, employees who believe they are paid fairly are 85 % more engaged and 62 % more committed than those who don’t. Korn Ferry reports that transparent pay boosts engagement and performance, and demonstrates organizational integrity. A PayScale survey found that 80 % of employees are more likely to apply for a job that publishes its salary range. Gen Z, raised on openness, demands transparency as a basic principle of fairness. Legislation has followed suit: more than a dozen U.S. states—including California, Colorado, New York, and Washington, D.C.—now require employers to disclose salary ranges during recruiting.

The business case is growing stronger. Wage transparency improves culture, strengthens compliance, and enhances competitiveness. It shows that a company takes its values seriously, and is willing to operationalize them, not just talk about them.

Some Companies Leading the Way

While wage transparency may sound like a single policy, in practice it takes many forms. The following companies are putting these principles into practice. Each one is navigating wage transparency in ways that reflect their values, their workforce, and their business model. Their experiences offer practical insights, from early challenges to long-term wins.

Solar States: Building Credibility Through Transparency

At Solar States, a Philadelphia-based B Corp, transparency is a foundational part of how the company operates. CFO Jael Blankenship explains that they’ve woven openness into company routines: “We have regular company-wide meetings where we share the state of our financials, our plans for the next three to six months, and how we got to wherever we are—whether it’s a good place or a bad place.” These conversations happen consistently and candidly, regardless of whether the news is good or difficult.

Founder Micah Gold-Markel shares that until recently, he personally attended weekly installer meetings, connecting directly with the teams in the field. “Did it make for longer work days? Absolutely. I’d meet with field teams at 6:30, then come into the office and meet with others at 9:00. But that regular exercise of communication builds trust,” he says. “There’s nothing better than speaking directly with people and having them feel comfortable saying whatever’s on their minds.”

The company has also taken a thoughtful approach to pay transparency. Early on, Solar States experimented with fully open salaries, but that approach didn’t scale well. “It created problems I didn’t anticipate,” Micah recalls. “Not necessarily with my salary as the founder, but more like: ‘This person next to me is making more than me, and I feel like I do more.’” So the company shifted to a model that emphasizes transparency by design, rather than full disclosure. 

Compensation is structured around clearly defined levels, such as junior installer, installer, and lead installer. Employees know the salary bands associated with each level and where they fall within them. “It’s transparent without violating personal privacy,” Micah explains.

Importantly, Solar States also maintains a pay ratio cap: no one at the company makes more than three to four times what the lowest-paid employee earns. This policy signals the company’s commitment to equity and helps dispel speculation. “In a situation that lacks transparency, people make wrong assumptions,” says Jael. “Before we explained things, people assumed office folks were making way more than the field folks were. Silence created a narrative that leadership was highly compensated while others were left behind.”

The results of this transparency-first culture are tangible. When the company faced financial challenges, the team rallied. “When you have to say, ‘Hey, we’re in a financial bind; we’ve got to lock in together,’ the whole company feels that,” Micah says. “But when you get out of it, everybody can say, ‘I was part of that.’ You rise and fall together… and that’s powerful.”

For Solar States, transparency isn’t just a principle; it’s a business strength. “Having a strong company culture is more important than having the strongest business strategy,” Jael reflects. “Because it’s the people who are doing the work; and they’ll put so much more effort into it if you’re investing in them, too.”

Buffer: Radical Salary Transparency in Action

While Buffer is not a certified B Corporation, it’s often held up as a model for values-driven transparency. Since 2013, Buffer has publicly shared all employee salaries along with its compensation formula, making pay information available on its website. This level of openness supports the company’s core principle: that transparency lays a foundation for mutual respect, enforces accountability, and drives both internal cohesion and industry-wide progress.

Buffer’s compensation philosophy centers around four guiding principles: transparency, simplicity, fairness, and generosity. Joel Gascoigne, Buffer’s CEO, explains: “People really care about not only what their salary is but also the way that a company approaches salaries… we’ve put a lot of time and energy into compensation because we believe it really matters.”

Every salary is publicly listed by name, role, location, and dollar amount, all calculated via a consistent formula based on market benchmarks and cost-of-living adjustments. Buffer has even published its internal Notion handbook detailing how the system works. The company’s “Open Salary System,” introduced in 2024, revamped the original salary formula and reaffirmed Buffer’s commitment to transparent, equitable compensation.

This transparency has tangible benefits. Buffer reports a marked increase in candidate interest—applications spiked by 229% after they launched their public salary database—and employees consistently cite the open system as a key reason for staying. Long tenure and strong internal alignment reflect the effectiveness of the approach.

Buffer’s case highlights that full salary transparency can work—especially for smaller, values-driven organizations willing to invest in clarity, fairness, and accountability. Their model goes beyond internal policies, offering a replicable blueprint for any company seeking to make wages a lever for culture-building and ethical leadership.

How to Start: From Audit to Action

Moving toward wage transparency doesn’t mean overhauling everything overnight. It means committing to clarity about how compensation decisions are made, how pay relates to roles and performance, and what employees can expect as they grow. For companies just starting out, it can feel daunting. But every step, however incremental, builds a more accountable and engaged culture.

Below are five concrete actions companies can take to begin or deepen the shift toward pay transparency:

1. Conduct a compensation equity audit. Begin by examining your current pay data across roles, departments, and demographics. Are employees in similar roles earning similar pay? Are there unexplained differences by gender, race, or tenure? This audit provides a baseline and helps identify areas that require immediate attention. Tools like PayScale, Syndio, or the compensation module of the B Impact Assessment can support this process. For smaller teams, a simple spreadsheet-based review can be a powerful starting point.

2. Define and publish pay bands. Create clear salary ranges for each role and level in your organization. For example:

• Junior roles: $55,000–$65,000
• Mid-level roles: $70,000–$90,000
• Senior roles: $100,000–$130,000

Share these bands with employees and include them in job postings. Publishing ranges isn’t just about compliance. It signals fairness and reduces the negotiation gap, especially for historically underpaid groups. Make it clear how employees can move within or between bands, and revisit ranges annually to ensure market competitiveness.

3. Train managers to discuss compensation openly. Even the clearest pay structures fall flat without communication. Managers should understand how pay decisions are made and be able to explain them confidently during reviews, 1:1s, and hiring conversations. Role-play common questions, offer guidelines for discussing merit increases, and prepare managers to answer “why” with consistency and care.

4. Tell the story—clearly and often. Transparency is a culture shift, and it works best when people understand the why. Share your goals openly: whether it’s closing equity gaps, earning employee respect, or living your values. A simple message like “We’re publishing pay bands because we believe transparency supports fairness, and we want to be accountable for equitable growth” can go a long way. Communicate through all-hands meetings, internal documents, onboarding, and ongoing check-ins.

5. Use the B Impact Assessment as a roadmap. If you’re a Certified B Corp (or on the path to becoming one), the BIA provides guidance on pay transparency, equity benchmarks, and accountability practices. It asks companies to report on internal pay ratios, salary range disclosure, and the frequency of compensation reviews. Treat it as both a mirror and a map: a way to assess where you are today and chart a course toward more equitable practices.

Over time, transparent practices become a muscle, strengthened through iteration and feedback. Start where you are. Be honest about what’s working and what still needs work. The reward isn’t just compliance or optics; it’s a more engaged, more cohesive workforce that understands how they’re valued, and why it matters.

The Cultural Ripple Effect

Wage transparency communicates more than numbers. It reveals how a company thinks about power, fairness, and accountability; and it shapes how others experience the brand. When organizations take clear steps to define and share how compensation decisions are made, they build credibility with job seekers, strengthen trust with partners, and show customers what their values look like in practice.

For candidates, transparent pay signals a thoughtful and equitable workplace. It invites a different kind of conversation during the hiring process: one grounded in respect, not negotiation games. For employees, it brings clarity and confidence. For vendors and suppliers, it reinforces shared commitments. And for customers, it offers another reason to believe in the brand. People want to support businesses that treat their people well, and transparency helps make that visible.

Wage transparency is often one of the first places a company’s deeper commitments take shape. It has a ripple effect: opening space for honest dialogue, deepening alignment, and helping businesses live their values in concrete, public ways. And it doesn’t have to be perfect. Pay transparency is a process: one that evolves over time. What matters most is taking the first step, communicating clearly, and being willing to refine as you learn. 

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