Salaries used to give employees plenty to talk about around the water coolers at the Tualatin Valley Water District in metropolitan Portland, Ore.“We used to get complaints all the time,” says Debbie Erickson, human resource manager. “Managers set pay raises at their own discretion. All our salaries are public record, and people tend to talk.”Adds general manager Greg DiLoreto: “We’re not unionized, so there were no formal pay grades. With fewer than 50 employees, it was almost like a family business. Raises were handed out at the whim of a manager. When employees saw a co-worker got a bigger raise
