When it comes to disclosing employee compensation information, the legal community is divided on the issue. Following are the two opinions.
OPINION #1. Upon request, associations must provide compensation information for all employees, including the general manager as follows, "Except as provided by the attorney-client privilege, the association may not withhold or redact information concerning the compensation paid to employees, vendors, or contractors. Compensation information for individual employees shall be set forth by job classification or title, not by the employee's name, social security number, or other personal information." (Civ. Code § 5215(b).)
OPINION #2. Associations are not required to provide employee compensation information to members unless such information is set forth in an "association record" (as that term is defined in Civil Code § 5200(a). The law does not require associations create a list of employees' salaries. If an association has created a list of employees' salaries for its own internal purposes, the law does not require the association provide the list to members unless such list is part of an "association record. If individual employee compensation information is contained in an"association record, then when the association makes that record available to a member to inspect, it must show the employee compensation information by job classification or title, not by the employee's name, social security number, or other personal information. (Civ. Code § 5215(b).)
Anonymity. Because the Legislature used the word "or" in describing how employee salaries must be shown ("job classification or title") in an "association record" that is being provided to a member to inspect, the decision of which format to use is the association's, not the person requesting the information. It is clear the Legislature wished to preserve employee anonymity as much as possible when making compensation disclosures that are part of an "association record." It then added further protections by prohibiting the listing of an employee's name, social security number, or other personal information.
List of Employees. Associations are not required to provide a list of its employees to members.
Management Company Employees. The right to salary information applies to the association not to the employees of the association's management company, or its vendors.
Compensation Undefined. Disclosing employee compensation was included in AB 104, signed into law in 2003, that dealt with financial disclosures. There is no commentary related to what the legislature meant by employee compensation. It would be reasonable to define it as salary plus any nondiscretionary bonuses.
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