Is pay transparency really the way to go?

IF YOU are able to find out exactly how much your colleagues around you earned, would you want to know?

An informal straw poll of some friends gave quite a mixed bag of reactions. Surprisingly, most actually said no. This is either because they don't want to open a can of worms, or simply because they don't want to "get depressed", as one succinctly put it. To them, ignorance is bliss.

The few who said yes believe that information is power. Knowing how much everyone earns lets them know where they stand and how they compare to their peers, they reason.