Wall Street solves this problem quite efficiently! The annual bonus is really the same as the performance review, so they simply tell everyone "you did a great

Wall Street solves this problem quite efficiently! The annual bonus is really the same as the performance review, so they simply tell everyone "you did a great job this year, here are your compensation numbers." That way, as a rank and file employee you don't really know whether your "review" was above, at, or below average. First order, because you'd have to ask your peers about their compensation, which most people consider rude (at least in the US). Second order, because the bonus is supposed to be an aggregate of your group and individual performance (plus your seniority), so it's usually impossible to find a suitable cohort for comparison.