In fact, the younger you are, the more likely you are to talk about pay, the study found. Fifty-eight percent of millennials have talked with a friend about their take-home pay. Only 47 percent of Gen Xers and 33 percent of baby boomers said the same.
“They’re posting other pictures of what type of car they drive, where they go on vacation and so on and so forth,” said Ricardo Perez-Truglia, an assistant professor of economics at University of California Los Angeles. “So, given that you’re already revealing all of that, I think that revealing what your salary is may not seem like a big deal. Whereas maybe older generations where people were private about everything, being private about salary was even more important.”
Besides age, income dictated comfort level when discussing income. For example, members of high-income households were more likely to share their salary than members of lower-earning households, according to the report.
SSRS conducted the study on behalf of Bankrate using its Omnibus survey platform. Respondents were contacted via landline and cellphone between October 2-7, 2017.