Marginalization by Secrecry

More widespread use of informational asymmetries can be seen within the labour market. The

gender gap in remuneration has been widely reported (Hausman et al. 2008; Arulampalam et al.

2007; O’Neill, 2003) but one key factor that has being instrumental in its continuance has been the

purposive hiding of the discrimination. This works through the effectively banning through

contractual obligations, or strongly discouraging, workers from discussing their compensation

(Kulow, 2013). Thus women, whose wages consistently remain below those of their male

counterparts, are unaware that they personally are being discriminated against due to a lack of

comparators. Kulow (2013: 427) argues that the only way of eradicating this information asymmetry

is to introduce mandatory wage disclosure laws since in Norway, where this was put in place, the

gender wage gap narrowed markedly.