re: Why is talking about salary a taboo?

There are so many variable that go into why I may pay a certain employee a certain salary. That often leads to people with similar skill and workloads having different salaries.

If those two want to have a conversation abotu their salaries, they don't neccessarily know what factors went into deciding the money each gets.

The simplest example is S&D for a given position at a certain point in time. I may hire two of the same position over a 6 month span, but 1 of them was hired during peak times and while I'm in desperate need. A good candidate will have more leverage with me at that time, so they may get more than another co-worker with a similar skill set.

Co-workers have absolutely no right to know these additional details that may factor into someones salary. Even in a "transparent" company. So policies prohibiting the sharing of said information do much more good than harm.