[jt2190]

I think the OP might have meant to type PII (Personally Identifiable Information) not IP (Intellectual Property).

> It's not like they are saying "John Doe, who lives in 1600 Pennsylvania Av., makes 120k".

It would be trivial for someone to aggregate that data from additional public sources, e.g. find a list of employees on LinkedIn and use their listed Job Title to determine salary.

Companies do have some responsibility to keep their employee’s personal data private, and this seems like a reasonable balance.