Salary.com Report: Employees Who Feel Unfairly Paid Are Five Times More Likely to Report Declining Trust in Employer

NewsData.io · United States · Aug 18, 2026

Salary.com's 2026 Trust and Pay Report, surveying 1,051 employers and 975 employees, finds a strong statistical correlation between pay fairness perception and employee trust: 36.4% of employees who feel unfairly paid say their trust declined over the past year, versus just 6.6% of those who feel fairly paid. Employers are largely blind to this dynamic — 44.6% of HR professionals cannot say whether trust improved or declined in the past year. The report also highlights a transparency gap: nearly half of employees who feel underpaid say their employer shares no pay range information. With the quits rate at a multi-year low of 1.9%, Salary.com warns that suppressed turnover may be masking latent dissatisfaction that will surface when hiring conditions improve.