I had a great conversation with a good friend of mine yesterday. He’s a client and an association exec and someone I like to talk shop with because he’s not afraid to push back and call it like he sees it.

This time he was pushing back on my recent post where I suggested making salary information public (for the record, by the way, I’m not the only association blogger to suggest this). He said this was a classic case of me, the outsider, telling CEOs what to do even though I’ve never walked a mile in their shoes (which is true; I’ve never had people working for me). It’s easy to recommend making salary information public when you don’t have to go into the office the next day and face the folks who work for you!

I agree that my post was not considering the legal or logistical issues around making salary information public. In fact, I don’t even know if it is possible to do it. As others commented, it sounds good in theory, but may not work in practice.

But that is precisely why I raised the question. If it sounds good in theory, WHY is it good? I am not advocating a solution (making salary information public), I am advocating more serious thought about how much you pay people, why you pay them that, and why you keep it a secret. Maybe it’s just legal issues. Fine. But maybe it’s because you exploit younger workers. Which is it? Do you even know? Have you thought about it?

Don’t let "that won’t work in reality" serve as an excuse to avoid the underlying questions. We do this more than we’d care to admit. Even if you still keep that information private, as a leader I do think you should tackle the underlying questions. I trust you to figure out what to do about it, keeping legal (and other) realities in mind. But I argue strongly that whatever action you take, it will be more effective if you have confronted—honestly and thoroughly—the bigger issues involved, even if they are theoretical.