Employers in Illinois and New Jersey willno longer be allowed to ask job applicants about salary history noruse salary history to determine how much to pay a new employee.
On July 25, New Jersey Lieutenant Gov. Sheila Oliver signed Bill A1094 into law which prohibits employers from screening job applicants based on the applicant’s prior salary history, which includes prior wages, salary, and benefits; and on July 31, 2019, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a law prohibiting Illinois employers from asking job applicants or their previous employers about salary history.
“We are declaring that one’s history should not dictate one’s future, that no person should be held back from earning their true value because of how much money they were paid in a previous job,” Pritzker said during a bill-signing event.
New Jersey’s law will go into effect January 1, 2020 and Illinois’ law will go into effect on September 29, 2019.
State and local governments are increasingly adopting laws and regulations that prohibit employers from requesting salary history information from job applicants.
For more information contact us.
See below for a list of states have passed similar laws.
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Effective Date: Sept. 1, 2019 Employers Affected: All employers Employers may not refuse to hire, interview, promote or employ a job applicant based on the applicant’s decision not to provide pay history.
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Effective Date: Jan. 1, 2018 Employers Affected: All employers, including state and local government employers and the legislature. California’s ban prohibits private and public employers from seeking a candidate’s pay history. Even if an employer already has that information or an applicant volunteers it, it still cannot be used in determining a new hire’s pay. Employers must also to give applicants pay scale information if they request it.
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Effective Date: July 1, 2018 Employers Affected: All employers, including city contractors and subcontractors A city ordinance in San Francisco prohibits employers from asking and considering a job applicants’ current or prior compensation in determining pay. It also bars them from disclosing a current or former employee’s salary information without their consent.
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Effective Date: Jan. 1, 2021 Employers Affected: All employers, including the state and any political subdivision, commission, department, institution or school district thereof. Employers may not ask about an applicant’s pay history, nor can they rely on pay history to determine wages. Employers may not discriminate or retaliate against a prospective employee for failing to disclose their pay history.
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Effective Date: Jan. 1, 2019 Employers Affected: Any individual, corporation, limited liability company, firm, partnership, voluntary association, joint stock association, the state and any political subdivision thereof and any public corporation within the state Employers may not ask about an applicant’s pay history, unless it was voluntarily disclosed.
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Effective Date: Dec. 14, 2017 Employers Affected: All employers, or an employer’s agent Employers are prohibited from screening applicants based on past compensation and from asking about salary history. They may, however, confirm that information after an offer is extended.
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Effective Date: Feb. 18, 2019 Employers Affected: City agencies Atlanta has removed the salary history question on employment applications They have also removed salary history questions in verbal interviews or in employment screenings.
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Effective Date: Jan. 1, 2019 Employers Affected: All employers, employment agencies and employees or agents thereof Employers are prohibited from asking about applicants’ salary histories, and they cannot rely on that information unless volunteered by the applicant. The law does not apply to internal applicants.
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Effective Date: Jan. 15, 2019 Employers Affected: State agencies Illinois’ governor said the state will no longer ask prospective employees questions about salary history. Effective Date: Sept. 29, 2019 Employers Affected: All employers Employers may not seek pay history including benefits or other compensation. Employers may, however, discuss applicants’ pay expectations.
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Effective Date: April 10, 2018 Employers Affected: City departments City departments may not ask for applicants’ salary histories.
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Effective Date: May 17, 2018 Employers Affected: The Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government or any department, agency or office thereof unless specifically excluded in the law City agencies may not ask for applicants’ salary histories.
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Effective Date: Jan. 25, 2017 Employers Affected: City departments City agencies may not ask for applicants’ salary histories.
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Effective Date: Sept. 17, 2019 Employers Affected: All employers. An employer may not seek information about a prospective employee’s pay history until after a job offer has been negotiated.
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Effective Date: Aug. 14, 2019 Employers Affected: The Montgomery County government The county is prohibited from seeking or relying on an applicant’s salary history as a factor in determining whether to hire the applicant or when setting pay. The county must not retaliate or refuse to hire an applicant for the applicant’s refusal to disclose their salary history. The county may rely on salary history voluntarily disclosed by an applicant to offer the applicant a higher wage than initially offered if this does not result in unequal pay for equal work based on gender.
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Effective Date: July 1, 2018 Employers Affected: All employers, including state and municipal employers. Employers cannot request salary history information. They can, however, confirm prior history if volunteered by the applicant or if an offer has been extended. If known, previous pay cannot be a defense to a pay discrimination claim.
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Effective Date: June 24, 2018 Employers Affected: None Michigan has prohibited salary history bans in the state. Local governments may not regulate the information that employers must request, require, or exclude on an application for employment or during the interview process. Effective Date: Jan. 8, 2019 Employers Affected: State departments and certain autonomous agencies Departments may not ask about a job applicant’s salary history until a conditional offer of employment is extended. They also may not ask a current or prior employer or search public records databases to ascertain an applicant’s current or previous salary. Information already known or inadvertently discovered may not be considered.
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Effective Date: June 13, 2019 Employers Affected: The city Applications for employment with the city shall not inquire about salary history.
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Effective Date: July 26, 2018 Employers Affected: The city The city may has ordered Applications for employment with the City of Jackson, Mississippi shall not contain inquiries regarding prior salary history.
Effective Date: Oct. 31, 2019 Employers Affected: All employers employing six or more employees Employers may not ask for nor rely on job applicants’ salary history when deciding to offer employment, or in determining salary, benefits or other compensation during the hiring process. Employers may ask about the applicant’s expectations around salary, benefits and compensation. The law’s prohibitions don’t apply to voluntary and unprompted disclosures of salary history information by an applicant.
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Effective Date: Feb. 1, 2018 Employers Affected: State entities New Jersey agencies and offices are prohibited from asking job applicants for their compensation history. Employers may not investigate the prior salaries of applicants. Effective Date: Jan. 1, 2020 Employers Affected: All employers Employers may not screen applicants based on their pay history. Employers may not require an applicant’s prior wages, salaries, or benefits meet minimum or maximum criteria. If an applicant voluntarily, without employer prompting or coercion, discloses pay history, an employer may verify the applicant’s pay history and may also consider pay history in determining the applicant’s salary, benefits and other compensation. After an offer of employment that includes an explanation of the overall compensation package has been made to the applicant, an employer may request the applicant provide the employer a written authorization to confirm pay history.
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Effective Date: Jan. 9, 2017 Employers Affected: All agencies and departments over which the governor has executive authority, and all public benefit corporations, public authorities, boards and commission for which the governor appoints the chair, the chief executive or the majority of board members, except for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey State agencies and departments may not request salary history from applicants until after an offer of employment is extended. If an applicant’s prior compensation is already known, that information may not be relied upon in determining such applicant’s salary, unless required by law or collective bargaining agreement. Effective Date: Jan. 6, 2020 Employers Affected: All employers Employers may not seek pay history. An employer may only confirm pay history if, at the time an offer of employment is made, applicants or current employees respond to the offer by providing pay history to support a wage or salary higher than that offered by the employer.
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Effective Date: Oct. 31, 2017 Employers Affected: All employers, employment agencies or employees or agents thereof Employers in New York City are prohibited from requesting information about job applicants’ previous pay or benefits. If an employer already has that information, it is prohibited from using that information to set pay.
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Effective Date: Dec. 17, 2017 Employers Affected: All employers and employment agencies Employers are barred from requesting information about past compensation and benefits until after a job offer is made.
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Effective Date: June 30, 2019 Employers Affected: Employers and employment agencies Employers may not ask, whether on an application or otherwise, about a job applicant’s wage or salary history, including compensation and benefits. Employers also may not conduct searches of publicly available records. Finally, employers may not rely on known salary history information in setting pay.
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Effective Date: July 9, 2018 Employers Affected: Employers, labor organizations, employment agencies or licensing agencies, or an employee or agent thereof Employers may not request information about previous wages. Only under limited circumstances may they confirm prior pay and rely on that information in setting pay.
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Effective Date: April 2, 2019 Employers Affected: State agencies State agencies are prohibited from requesting salary history from applicants. State agencies may not rely upon previously obtained prior salary information in determining an applicant’s salary.
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Effective Date: March 2020 (estimated) Employers Affected: Employers with 15 or more employees located within the city, including job placement and referral agencies. State and local governments are excluded, with the exception of the City of Cincinnati. Employers may not ask applicants about their salary history and may not rely on known salary histories. Employers also must, upon reasonable request, provide a pay scale for a position for which an applicant has been provided a conditional offer of employment.
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Effective Date: June 25, 2020 Employers Affected: All employers located within the city that employ 15 or more employees, including referral and employment agencies, as well as the city. Employers may not ask for nor screen job applicants based on their pay history. They may not require that an applicant’s pay history, benefits or other compensation satisfy minimum or maximum criteria. Employers may, however, discuss applicants’ pay expectations.
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Effective Date: Oct. 6, 2017 Employers Affected: Any person employing one or more employees, including the state or any political subdivision thereof or any county, city, district, authority, public corporation or entity and any of their instrumentalities organized and existing under law or charter Employers may not ask an applicants’ pay history until after an offer of employment is extended. Employers also are prohibited from using prior compensation to set pay, except for current employees moving to a new position with the same employer.
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Effective Date: Sept. 4, 2018 (estimated) Employers Affected: State agencies State agencies may not ask about a job applicant’s current compensation or compensation history at any stage during the hiring process. All job postings must clearly disclose a position’s pay scale and pay range.
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Philadelphia |
Effective Date: TBD Employers Affected: Any person who does business in the city through employees or who employs one or more employees exclusive of parents, spouse or children, including any public agency or authority; any agency, authority or instrumentality of the state; and the city, its department, boards and commissions Philadelphia’s salary history ban remains on hold while a judge considers a legal challenge to the regulations.
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Effective Date: Jan. 30, 2017 Employers Affected: The city or any division, department, agency or office thereof, unless specifically excluded in the law The city’s agencies and offices may not ask about an applicant’s prior pay and, if they discover it, are prohibited from relying on that information unless the applicant has volunteered it.
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Effective Date: March 8, 2017 Employers Affected: All employers Employers may not request applicants’ pay history, but the law makes some exceptions for applicants’ voluntary salary disclosures and pay corroboration that take place after a job offer has been made, according to a translation from Littler Mendelson.
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Effective Date: Aug. 6, 2019 Employers Affected: The city The city will not seek pay history, nor will it rely on pay history in the determination of wages unless an applicant knowingly and willingly discloses pay history. The city will encourage vendors who do business with the city to adopt similar standards, and it may factor in vendors’ pay history standards in the process of determining whether to award city contracts.
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Effective Date: May 23, 2019 Employers Affected: The county Richland County will remove the salary history question from employment applications, verbal interviews and employment screenings.
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Effective Date: March 1, 2018 Employers Affected: Salt Lake City Corporation Individuals participating in a city hiring process are prohibited from asking an applicant about their salary history. If an applicant voluntarily discloses salary information, the city cannot rely on such information.
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Effective Date: July 1, 2018 Employers Affected: All employers Employers may not request applicants’ pay history. If that information is volunteered, employers may only confirm it after a job offer has been made.
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Effective Date: July 28, 2019 Employers Affected: All employers Employers may not seek the salary history of an applicant. They may confirm an applicant’s salary history if the applicant voluntarily discloses it or if an offer has been extended. Upon request of the applicant and after extending an offer to the applicant, employers with 15 or more employees, , must provide information about the minimum salary for the position for which the applicant is applying.
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Effective Date: April 18, 2018 Employers Affected: None Local governments may not prohibit employers from soliciting the salary history of prospective employees.
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