Salary is a delicate subject. We all know how uncomfortable the atmosphere can get when asked about your pay expectations during a job interview. Likewise, the same goes for talking about compensation with your colleagues — something that still carries a scent of social taboo with it.

In a semi-recent survey done by Bankrate, it was found that less than 25% of people have shared (or were willing to share) how much they make with their coworkers. Which, to be honest, isn't so surprising considering that many companies are motivated to promote pay secrecy — either covertly or overtly — because it often saves them money.

The good news is: this is slowly changing with Millenials (and younger generations), as they are slowly pushing the envelope. Turns out, they're nearly twice as likely to discuss money with their colleagues compared to former generations.

One of the simplifications of the gender pay gap issue is that men and women tend to choose different career paths. So much, in fact, that researchers created a term for it: "gender occupational segregation." And while this theory is not completely wrong, researchers and economists started breaking down all of the components needed to see what may be the real cause of the gender pay gap.

You could say that things have improved: in 2016, an American woman earned 79 cents for every dollar a typical American man made. Today, this pay gap has narrowed as women are only 7 cents away from earning the same as their male counterparts.

Even after factoring in differences in education, experience, age, location, job title, industry and even company, there was still a 5-cent difference, which meant something was definitely off. Perhaps, this is the mysterious reason why almost 50% of men and 30% of women believe the problem of equal pay and gender parity has been "made up to serve a political purpose."

While half the workers in the United States are subject to a phenomenon called 'pay secrecy' — especially those in private-sectors, where 66% of the employees were either formally prohibited from sharing their salaries or verbally discouraged from doing so, according to this study — it was found that women, and not men, are more likely to violate these policies.

Still, it's almost always easier to blame the silenced individuals instead of multi-billion dollar corporations and government bodies that (unsurprisingly) haven't been able to figure this out since the 60s when the first Equal Pay Act was introduced in America.

According to Laurel Smith-Doerr and Sharla Alegria, professors of sociology who recently published their research on the organizational-level gendered pay gap and agreed to share their findings with us — it has nothing to do with individuals. Except those who are at the top, running the faulty organizations.

"Certainly, employers choosing not to be open about compensation contributes to an enduring lack of pay equity," Doerr told Bored Panda. "[But] I wouldn’t pin the pay gap on individual employees." Indeed. Laurel and Sharla knew that on the ground level, our regular coffee chains and individual companies, things aren't yet adjusted to close the gap. But what they didn't suspect is that the same problem is as prominent on a federal level, as it is elsewhere. "We didn’t expect to see [that] some federal agencies choose more often to pay men, rather than women off of the general schedule pay grades, and pay those off-grade men higher average salaries," they explained in their findings.

The gender pay gap is in the crosshairs of many different studies in many different languages. But few are so determined to find out where the problem's roots are, as is Laurel's and Sharla's research. "The federal government is this kind of ideal case where pay is highly regulated in exactly the ways we account for when we look at something like the gender pay gap," Alegria said.

Different than most jobs, federal pay grades are based on education, experience, specific job tasks – things that when matched correctly should result in equal pay. Shouldn't matter if you're a congressman or a congresswoman. "Given how carefully regimented and tied to meritocratic ideals pay is in the federal government, we shouldn’t find systematic pay gaps around gender," continued Alegria. But, as Laurel quickly remarked, "it was surprising that we did find gender pay gaps."

"When we started, we expected the whole federal government to use the same pay grade scale to set pay. We learned that this is not the case at all," Alegria pointed out. They explained that pay grades varied exclusively for scientists and other professionals "whose pay in the private sector would be quite high." Thus, these alternative payment systems allow some to reach early retirement faster than those on the standard "general schedule," as they grant higher pay.

"Some agencies pay virtually all employees on the general schedule and these agencies had vanishingly small pay gaps when we accounted for pay grade. Other agencies used alternative pay grades extensively. In these cases, they tended to pay a larger share of men than women on an alternative scale, and consequently – we saw bigger pay gaps associated with pay grade," Doerr explained.

When asked what a worker should do if there's a nagging feeling they're being shortchanged, Laurel and Sharla say there are quite a few ways to approach the problem. "If asking directly about your own pay doesn't feel quite right," Alegria said, "ask if your company has a process for regularly reviewing pay for gender equity and making adjustments."

Or, as Laurel recommends, it's worth "checking out the resources that are available on pay for comparable jobs at your employer." Glass Door, Indeed and PayScale are a few among many that provide this service. After all, with the COVID-19 recession finally coming to an end, Laurel believes "it might be a good time to make a move."