It should be illegal to ask a stranger what they do for a living, or how much they make.
It is of vital importance for unionizing to be able to exchange information with strangers about your salary. Making that illegal (as apparently the case in some US states) is just playing into the hands of capitalists.
If you are worried about the “dinner-party social stigma” thing, then you need to think a bit about just how privileged of a situation that is. No offense meant :)
Edit: Looking at the point above… do you mean an issue with the police asking homeless people about their job and salary? You probably need to explain a bit better what you mean, as it is easy to misunderstand…
imo talking to fellow workers about how much the boss is paying, and a random stranger asking me what I do for a living while i’m just trying to buy glasses are two totally different things.
Obviously no-one is forced to answer such questions from random strangers (and at least personally I have never experienced people asking such questions out of the blue), but it isn’t just about co-workers as you need to be able to freely exchange salary information across companies and also different economic sectors to make an informed decision where to work.
It is of vital importance for unionizing to be able to exchange information with strangers about your salary. Making that illegal (as apparently the case in some US states) is just playing into the hands of capitalists.
If you are worried about the “dinner-party social stigma” thing, then you need to think a bit about just how privileged of a situation that is. No offense meant :)
Edit: Looking at the point above… do you mean an issue with the police asking homeless people about their job and salary? You probably need to explain a bit better what you mean, as it is easy to misunderstand…
imo talking to fellow workers about how much the boss is paying, and a random stranger asking me what I do for a living while i’m just trying to buy glasses are two totally different things.
Obviously no-one is forced to answer such questions from random strangers (and at least personally I have never experienced people asking such questions out of the blue), but it isn’t just about co-workers as you need to be able to freely exchange salary information across companies and also different economic sectors to make an informed decision where to work.