Pay communication: Where do we go from here?

Recently, there has been a movement towards pay openness in the workplace. However, the pay communication literature is narrow in scope, considering only a limited range of outcomes, which makes the reasoning for this recent trend of pay openness practices hard to determine. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to encourage expansion of the pay communication research, specifically focusing on pay openness practices. A definitive description of pay communication, as well as its two extremes (pay openness and pay secrecy) are provided. Additionally, a typology of the two aspects of pay communication (organizational restriction and employee restriction) that has been identified from the literature is developed. Based on the organizational justice framework, propositions are developed for pay openness practices' influence on previously overlooked dependent variables such as workplace deviance, organizational citizenship behaviors, organizational commitment, and perceived organizational support. Several propositions, models, and additional new directions are presented for future research. •We provide a description of pay communication and its two extremes.•We create a typology of pay communication based on its two aspects.•Pay openness is proposed to influence several employee attitudes and behaviors.•The organizational justice framework theoretically explains the propositions.•Several models are provided.