Alex Williams had an interesting piece yesterday in the NY Times – Not So Personal Finance. The main message can be seen from the following quote:

At 22, Ms. Green, like her friends, is less afraid to flirt with what many over 35 consider the last taboo in American life: discussing salary openly with friends and colleagues. “There’s just more of a feeling of openness in discussing what you make,” Ms. Green said

Actually, the quote is a little misleading – the friend part is right, but as the article goes on to note that 84% of young workers agree that “you should never let your co-workers know how much you make” (compared to 90% for 35+).  There were also a few other quotes using some key words wikinomics readers should be used to:

“This is a generation that is much more attuned to teamwork, collaboration and sharing information. Everything they do is a kind of group event. How do you know, when you get your first job offer, if $45,000 is a good offer, a bad offer or an O.K. offer? You go to your friends.”  – Bill Coleman

Several workers under 35 said that greater salary transparency among friends only makes sense in an age when there is so much information freely available online. Young professionals, in fact, have all sorts of ways to find out how much their friends make, even without asking.

But social scientists say that some young people have generation-specific motives for broaching this touchy subject. Robert H. Frank, an economics professor at Cornell, said that an open flow of information is deemed crucial by young professionals who think of themselves as free agents, not company men.

Anyone else noticing these trends at work?