... When salaries become more transparent, some managers may finesse the system by compensating employees in ways that are less public, like bonuses and benefits. And that can undermine the reduction in pay gaps. “If we’re shifting rewards to other forms where there’s less transparency and where we also know that there is gender inequity, we’re not really solving anything with pay transparency,” said Peter Bamberger, a professor at Tel Aviv University. He co-authored a study published in the Academy of Management Journal that found that employees were more likely to request, and managers were more likely to grant, these kind of perks when pay was public.
In order to avoid the trap of paying everyone the same thing regardless of performance, or shifting to less transparent systems, Mr. Bamberger said companies needed to figure out how to assess performance and explain differences in pay. “Those companies have a competitive advantage,” he said.