New Law Bans California Employers From Asking Applicants Their Prior Salary (sfgate.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: California employers can no longer ask job applicants about their prior salary and -- if applicants ask -- must give them a pay range for the job they are seeking, under a new state law that takes effect Jan. 1. AB168, signed Thursday by Gov. Jerry Brown, applies to all public- and private-sector California employers of any size. The goal is to narrow the gender wage gap. If a woman is paid less than a man doing the same job and a new employer bases her pay on her prior salary, gender discrimination can be perpetuated, the bill's backers say. Last year, the state passed a weaker law that said prior compensation, by itself, cannot justify any disparity in compensation. The new bill goes further by prohibiting employers, "orally or in writing, personally or through an agent," from asking about an applicant's previous pay. However, if the applicant "voluntarily and without prompting" provides this information, the employer may use it "in determining the salary for that applicant."

Comments

Voluntary disclosure

[Anonymous Coward]

I foresee a lot of voluntary disclosure. :(

Re:Employers do that?

[TheGratefulNet]

I'm job-seeking right now and they always ask. ALWAYS.

I love how this was passed thru (the law) because of male/female pay issues.

the REAL issue is that it makes negotiating a one-way street, with the company having all the power and you have nearly none.

'the first one to mention a number, loses'

that's how the old saying goes when you are haggling.

and yet, there's few ways out of this game, especially since you can't just mark 'market rate' on the online hr forms.

its all about keeping you in your place. the god damned 'job creators' that we have been worshipping really don't have our needs in mind; they could not care less if we all starved and died on the streets. lots of indians to come over and work for a fraction of what a US person needs to live on.

good that this passed thru; but sad that it had to be couched as a male/female thing instead of 'strong company/weak worker' negotiation balancing.

either way, I expect companies to find loopholes to work around this 'unpleasent' rebalance of power.

Broken clock is correct twice a day..

[LVSlushdat]

Gotta give the progressive morons in Sacramento credit for this one..This should be the law everywhere...

Re:Employers do that?

[beelsebob]

I've been asked the question by recruiters at major tech companies. It's been pretty quickly shut down by "I'm not in the Bay Area currently, I don't think what I'm on just now is in any way relevant to how much I should be paid over there".

Re:The question will change

[Kierthos]

That's still better than telling them your previous salary.

I mean, let's say you're interviewing for a position that pays $65k - $80k (and it was advertised as such), depending on experience. If you tell them that at your last job, you were making $60k, they're going to start negotiating at $65k.

But if the question is, how much do you expect to earn here, it puts you in a better position for negotiation. Maybe you have enough experience to flat out say "$80k". Or maybe, you want to give them a little wiggle room for negotiation so you don't come across as a hard-ass, and you say "$75k".

But you still have a better starting point for the salary negotiation.

Just ask Equifax

[Arzaboa]

Who needs to ask the employee when you can ask Equifax or Transunion the same question?

--
"Ask me once, you a fool. Ask me twice, wait, What?" -- J. Muamma

Re:Employers do that?

[Austerity Empowers]

Now that you mention it, I do remember such questions from a couple of lifetimes ago when I was applying for unskilled jobs. That was so long ago that I forgot. Those questions stopped when I started in engineering, though.

I've worked as an engineer for 20 years in the very best companies out there. All of them asked that. Some require a drug test, others don't. It's silly, I am not going to be operating a bus, I'm going to be driving a keyboard and mouse, maybe an oscilloscope if I get suckered into lab work. All ask for your previous salary on the job application.

These days I leave it blank, but often HR will ask directly. I give them a number that is defensible but misleading, and what I want them to beat to work there. So far nobody has ever called me on it.

They should not ask though. First, it is usually considered confidential information from current employers. Second, the should be paying me what they think I'm worth, not based on what the other guy thought I was worth, or via some fixing scheme where everyone agrees this is what we pay engineers, and when they get pissed we give them a few % more.

Re:Employers do that?

[JohnFen]

How can they verify it?

The best they could do is tax records, but that's sufficiently imprecise to cover you. They could do a credit check, but that only gives them a general range, not an exact salary.

But, if you don't want to lie, then just don't answer the question.

There's exactly no chance that I'm going to tell potential employers what previous employers paid me. That's very personal information that they have no legitimate need to know.

If that means I won't get hired for the position, that's fine -- if the information is that important to them, that's an excellent indication that I wouldn't fit in well in that company anyway.

Re:Employers do that?

[Archangel Michael]

You mean the fact that Single Women just out of college earn more than their male counterparts, but an average of 8%?

"Census data from 2008 show that single, childless women in their 20s now earn 8 percent more on average than their male counterparts in metropolitan areas."

http://www.politifact.com/pund...

The wage gap myth is based on the idea that men and women make equal choices, and doesn't account for career choices, family choices, and other meaningful criteria. But hey, it fits the narrative.