I signed a NDA on my compensation. Can I respond to a Salary Confidential survey safely?

If you’ve signed an NDA or employment contract that limits your ability to discuss your compensation, it’s reasonable to wonder whether you can participate in a Salary Confidential survey.

This is not legal advice

We can’t assess whether your NDA is legal, enforceable, or applicable to your specific situation.

That said, it’s important to know that clauses that prohibit employees from discussing their own pay are often not enforceable, even if they appear in a signed contract.

In the United States, federal labor law protects most private-sector employees’ right to discuss wages and compensation with others. Employers generally cannot lawfully prevent this through policies, contracts, or NDAs.
You can read more from the U.S. National Labor Relations Board here:
https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/your-rights/your-rights-to-discuss-wages

In the United Kingdom, pay secrecy clauses cannot be enforced when they are used to prevent employees from identifying or understanding potential pay discrimination (for example, based on gender or ethnicity), under the Equality Act 2010.

We are not your attorney, and laws vary by jurisdiction and employment status. It’s your decision — and your responsibility — to decide whether to respond to a survey. You are never obligated to participate.

Anonymity is what makes survey participation a safe disclosure in most cases

What NDAs typically restrict (where they are enforceable at all) is you, as an identifiable individual, disclosing your compensation.

Salary Confidential is designed so that survey responses are anonymous by default. You can read more about this in our many FAQ articles that explain how we go about securing and anonymizing your data, including:

Even the person running a survey — the requester — cannot see who submitted which response. They know that responses came from within their invited group, but they cannot tell who participated, who didn’t, or which individual is behind any specific data point.

The only way to identify yourself would be to do so voluntarily (for example, by naming yourself in a free-text response). We strongly recommend against including identifying information, NDA or not.

Ultimately, the decision is yours

We can’t guarantee that using Salary Confidential is "safe" under every possible contract or legal framework. What we can do is explain, transparently, how anonymity works on the platform so you can make an informed decision.

Many respondents choose to participate precisely because Salary Confidential is designed to prevent attribution, identification, and result tracing. We encourage you to review the relevant FAQs and decide what’s right for you.