[MRM]

As far as the "secretly" part goes, employers cannot prohibit employees from comparing compesation and working conditions or fringe benefits. Many employers have policies claiming that pay is private and threatening to punish workers who compare their pay with other workers, but that is illegal. Comparing pay and working conditions is a fundamental right of employees and is fundamental to their right to organize. So no, the employer can't keep its pay scale secret, but the employees don't have to share that information, either. It's up to the various employees if they want to share and compare their salaries.

Employers can absolutely play favorites and pay one person more than the other just because they like one better than the other or because one "represents" the company better. This only becomes a problem when the people who are favored tend to have a certain look, such as blond and blue-eyed, and the people who aren't recognized as representing the company quite as well are all darker or speak with funny accents, despite having the same duties and the same performance evaluation scores.

If the employer plays favorites because one of the workers is a kiss ass, that's legal. If the employer favors a worker because she's blond and has big tits, and openly disses the fat black woman who types twice as fast and covers twice the assignment level, then you have a problem. If all the "girls" in the organization work in clerical jobs while all the "boys" do the manual labor and managerial work at higher pay, you have a problem. If the ability to lift 25 pounds repetetively is a bona fide requirement for the position, then it's not illegal for most of the emplyees to be men because more men than women will be able to fullfill that bona fide occupational qualification. But if the job really doesn't require more than a five pound repetetive weight tolerance, then it would be discrimination to require the ability to lift 25 pouinds, since screening for people who can lift 25 pounds repetetively will in effect result in you screening by sex, and highering only men. That's called a pretext.

Make sense?