Public salary data is common in government
I worked in state government, in a department that was centralized administrative services for a number of locations. Not only did local newspapers occasionally publish salaries, the IT people saw the payroll reports, the finance people computed budgets based on them, and the HR people set the salaries in the first place. So we all knew what everyone else's salary. Since it was all a matter of public record, there was no sense in trying to hide it.
Although certain head-scratching anomalies were exposed and made for great gossip, the net result was good. The pecking order was displayed for all to see. In most cases, the salaries made sense. With the salary mystery totally solved, there was nothing to speculate about.
A few people were seriously overpaid or underpaid, but there was less griping than you might expect. At the end of the day, either YOUR salary makes sense to YOU or it's time to look for another job. If you can't find better money elsewhere, then you have the right salary after all. If you CAN find better money, by all means accept the offer and solve the problem.
Secret salary information is just one more point of control for HR. Their rationale is that exposure will force additional spending to rectify unfair situations -- as if covering them up is a long-term solution. This is more about control than anything else.
