Short answer: yes. Employees in Australia can lawfully discuss their wages with each other, and no contract clause, workplace policy or verbal direction can change that. Section 333B of the Fair Work Act 2009 gives every employee the right to disclose, or not disclose, their own remuneration and any conditions reasonably necessary to work out their pay outcomes, expressly including the hours they work. Pay secrecy clauses in contracts and other written agreements made on or after 7 December 2022 have no effect, and since 7 June 2023 including one is a civil penalty contravention.

For employers the stakes run in two directions. Relying on a pay secrecy clause invites Fair Work Ombudsman enforcement, and dismissing or disciplining an employee for comparing pay is adverse action: the claim goes to the Fair Work Commission within 21 days and compensation is uncapped. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s pay secrecy guidance confirms the right to share, or not share, pay information. This guide covers what the law bans, the penalties, a recent court decision, and the compliance steps for employers.

Are Employees Allowed to Discuss Wages?

Yes. The section 333B right covers remuneration (wages, salary, loadings, allowances, penalty rates) plus conditions reasonably necessary to determine remuneration outcomes, such as hours worked and classification. It is symmetrical: an employee may disclose their pay, and may refuse to disclose it. An employer cannot force disclosure any more than it can suppress it.

Pay secrecy terms in awards and enterprise agreements have also had no effect since 7 December 2022. Because hours worked are protected, roster conversations that feed into pay are covered too, an extension of the rules on changing an employee’s working hours.

Can Employees Discuss Pay With Each Other?

Yes, at their desks, on a break, on social media or outside work entirely. Any employer attempt to prevent or discourage the discussion is unlawful, and “discourage” is deliberately broad: a handbook line saying salaries are confidential, a social media policy banning pay posts, or a manager’s “keep that between us” can each amount to a contravention, even if nothing is ever signed.

This is exactly how employers come unstuck in litigation. In Fox v NQM Gold [2025] FedCFamC2G 2034 a mining company employee was dismissed during probation in November 2023 after discussing remuneration and contract offers with two colleagues. The Federal Circuit and Family Court found the pay discussions, not the performance grounds cited in the termination letter, were the substantial and operative reasons for the dismissal. The $884.17 awarded was small only because his unclaimed entitlements were small; the liability finding, and the legal costs, were not.

What Are Pay Secrecy Clauses?

A pay secrecy clause is any term that purports to prevent or discourage an employee from disclosing their remuneration or the conditions reasonably necessary to determine their remuneration outcomes. Classic examples: clauses requiring pay to be kept “strictly confidential”, prohibiting discussion with “any other employee”, or barring disclosure of contract terms.

Contracts signed before 7 December 2022 were given a transition window, but it closed on 7 June 2023. From that date every legacy pay secrecy clause, in every contract regardless of when it was signed, ceased to have effect: it cannot be enforced and cannot lawfully be relied on even as a reminder. Practitioners still regularly find the banned clauses in contracts drafted long after the deadline, suggesting many employers are sitting on non-compliant templates.

Pay Secrecy and the Fair Work Act

The framework sits in sections 333B to 333D, inserted by the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022: section 333B creates the employee right, section 333C voids pay secrecy terms in workplace instruments, and section 333D makes including one in a written contract a contravention, enforceable from 7 June 2023.

The penalty exposure is real. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s published maximum civil penalties are $21,840 per contravention for an individual and up to $109,200 for a company with fewer than 15 employees, with higher maxima for larger companies. Each contract containing a prohibited clause is a separate contravention: a non-compliant template issued to ten new hires is ten contraventions, not one. And because discussing pay is a workplace right, a dismissal motivated by it is a general protections claim with uncapped compensation, unlike unfair dismissal where compensation is capped. See our guide to general protections claims for how that jurisdiction runs.

When Can an Employer Still Require Confidentiality About Pay?

The law protects an employee’s own pay information. It does not give employees the right to parade everyone else’s. Three boundaries remain open:

• Payroll and HR staff. Employees with legitimate access to colleagues’ pay records can be required to keep other employees’ remuneration confidential. That is not their own remuneration, so section 333B does not touch it, and privacy obligations and duties of confidence continue to apply.
• Third-party information. Contractor rates and negotiation positions involving people who are not employees sit outside the protection.
• Choice about transparency. Banning pay secrecy prohibits suppression; it does not mandate disclosure. Employers need not publish pay bands or reveal what other employees earn.

Performance management is untouched too, provided it is genuinely about performance. A disruptive or unproductive employee can be managed on those facts, but the fact they compared wages can never form part of the reason.

Pay Secrecy Compliance Checklist for Employers

1. Audit every contract and template. Check active contracts, offer templates and pre-December 2022 agreements for pay confidentiality wording. Our employment agreement templates are drafted pay-secrecy free.
2. Strip policies, not just contracts. Review handbooks, social media policies and confidentiality agreements for any line that prohibits or discourages pay discussion.
3. Brief managers. The most common contravention is informal: a supervisor telling a team member not to share their salary.
4. Scope confidentiality clauses precisely. Where confidentiality is legitimate (payroll staff, third-party rates), tie the clause to that data only, in wording that cannot be read as a pay secrecy clause.
5. Get the documents checked. Start with our free employment agreement templates, and see our HR best practice resources for employers for the wider framework.

The Employer’s Bottom Line

Pay secrecy in Australian employment contracts is dead law. What remains is choice: remove the banned clauses, align your policies, and decide how transparent your pay framework will be. If wage discussions are causing friction, the lawful fix is a documented pay policy reviewed by an employment lawyer, not a gag clause that carries a penalty.