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CA Stay Winning: Asking Job Applicants for Salary History to be Illegal Jan 1st

S

Syriel

Member
This is pretty sweet. Smart job seekers always refused to disclose salary history, but not everyone was always in a position to do so. Now it is the law.

Signed into law this past week. Effective Jan 1, 2018.

Assembly Bill No. 168 said:
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1. Section 432.3 is added to the Labor Code, to read:

432.3. (a) An employer shall not rely on the salary history information of an applicant for employment as a factor in determining whether to offer employment to an applicant or what salary to offer an applicant.

(b) An employer shall not, orally or in writing, personally or through an agent, seek salary history information, including compensation and benefits, about an applicant for employment.

(c) An employer, upon reasonable request, shall provide the pay scale for a position to an applicant applying for employment.

(d) Section 433 does not apply to this section.

(e) This section shall not apply to salary history information disclosable to the public pursuant to federal or state law, including the California Public Records Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code) or the federal Freedom of Information Act (Section 552 of Title 5 of the United States Code).

(f) This section applies to all employers, including state and local government employers and the Legislature.

(g) Nothing in this section shall prohibit an applicant from voluntarily and without prompting disclosing salary history information to a prospective employer.

(h) If an applicant voluntarily and without prompting discloses salary history information to a prospective employer, nothing in this section shall prohibit that employer from considering or relying on that voluntarily disclosed salary history information in determining the salary for that applicant.

(i) Consistent with Section 1197.5, nothing in this section shall be construed to allow prior salary, by itself, to justify any disparity in compensation.
Click to expand...

Source:
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB168
 
N

NetMapel

Guilty White Male Mods Gave Me This Tag
I get asked that before by recruiters too but I just tell them what salary I want instead of why I was making. They don’t usually insist on finding out exactly how much I made before.
 
B

BobLoblaw

Banned
Not bad. I make a decent amount of money, so I'm hoping this doesn't impact me if I choose to go somewhere else and ask for more since they'd have no way of verifying it.
 
L

Lucario

Member
It’s illegal in Massachusetts too, but nearly every recruiter and hiring manager still asks. Hopefully they actually enforce it to some extent.
 
H

haimon

Member
Here in Israel they ask what are your expectations.

Never asked me about my history but about what I expect.
 
S

spazchicken

Member
"A million dollars an hour! Now can you top that!?"

I've never had a problem with this but work on credit checks for job applicants, next.
 
M

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
Messofanego said:
That's even a thing? Never had an employer/interviewer ask me this, but I'm in the UK.
Click to expand...

Every recruiter I have ever talked to has asked me what I am currently on and how much I am looking for. I'm in Ireland and we have a lot of the same recruitment companies as the UK.

Eila said:
Is Europe a hellhole with insane living costs and traffic?
Click to expand...

Most of the capitols are exactly like this. Maybe not the hellhole part.
 
O

Ominym

Banned
Mattakuevan said:
Yeah, Ive been asked in every single phone interview ive had.
Click to expand...

Almost entirely my experience as well. You can usually get out of it with something like, "oh, well I'd like to know exactly what I would be doing day-to-day before making a judgement call on salary for the role" or something to that effect. But I did have one interview with a large tech company ironically based in California respond to that line with, "...in order for applicants to proceed in this process, we need to know what exactly what your salary requirements are."

Told them thank you for their time, but I was no longer interested. Felt super gross.
 
M

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
Ominym said:
But I did have one interview with a large tech company ironically based in California respond to that line with, "...in order for applicants to proceed in this process, we need to know what exactly what your salary requirements are."

Told them thank you for their time, but I was no longer interested. Felt super gross.
Click to expand...

Isn't that more asking what you want then asking what you currently earn? I probably would have just named a figure, they can take it or leave it then.
 
R

Rosur2a

Member
Messofanego said:
That's even a thing? Never had an employer/interviewer ask me this, but I'm in the UK.
Click to expand...

I always get asked my current and what I'm looking for. Maybe some fields don't in the UK but for mine recruiters do. Though never get asked salary's before that usually (have on some applications and normally just put the current ignoring the rest).
 
B

Brazil

Living in the shadow of Amaz
Every single time a thread about new worker protection laws in the US shows up I get absolutely shocked by the shit companies were able to get away with previously.

Truly a modern caste system.
 
O

Oxn

Member
Ominym said:
Almost entirely my experience as well. You can usually get out of it with something like, "oh, well I'd like to know exactly what I would be doing day-to-day before making a judgement call on salary for the role" or something to that effect. But I did have one interview with a large tech company ironically based in California respond to that line with, "...in order for applicants to proceed in this process, we need to know what exactly what your salary requirements are."

Told them thank you for their time, but I was no longer interested. Felt super gross.
Click to expand...

What is wrong with asking for what you want? What?

They werent asking what you were making.
 
D

Deleted member 20415

Unconfirmed Member
My company in NY recently implemented this. I have never asked that question ever, assume it's always HR's job to deal with that... so great to see that people are taking a stand.

Now I just hope candidates value themselves correctly, and don't just underplay a salary to get a job - self sabotage.
 
K

Kthulhu

Member
Brazil said:
Every single time a thread about new worker protection laws in the US shows up I get absolutely shocked by the shit companies were able to get away with previously.

Truly a modern chaste system.
Click to expand...

It's ridiculous. Just look up "right to work laws" if you wanna feel extra shitty.
 
J

Junior Mint

Member
Ominym said:
Almost entirely my experience as well. You can usually get out of it with something like, "oh, well I'd like to know exactly what I would be doing day-to-day before making a judgement call on salary for the role" or something to that effect. But I did have one interview with a large tech company ironically based in California respond to that line with, "...in order for applicants to proceed in this process, we need to know what exactly what your salary requirements are."

Told them thank you for their time, but I was no longer interested. Felt super gross.
Click to expand...

Umm, that’s a pretty standard question to ask.
 
Euler007

Euler007

Member
At my old firm the owner didn't have pay scales, he just lowballed unwitting applicants and at the same time gave in to aggressive firm hoppers. You'd have a terrible 50 yr old project manager making 70$ an hour next to a great 30 year old project manager making 28$ an hour. Made for great morale in the office.
 
S

Sulik2

Member
Messofanego said:
That's even a thing? Never had an employer/interviewer ask me this, but I'm in the UK.
Click to expand...

If there is a way to screw employees, its legal in the USA. Basically every protection you take for granted in terms of worker rights in the UK and Europe does not exist in the USA. Whether its knowing your salary history so they can keep your payments as low as possible, no paid time off, fired for no cause, etc... Worker rights are a joke in this country.
 
T

The Albatross

Member
Nice of you to catch up California ;) Massachusetts implemented this last year, signed into law by a Republican governor too. I'm pleased with it. It's also a major hurdle to help close the gender gap in pay. Salary history is one of those things that prevents women from catching up to men in pay, because women have historically received lower salaries so that *first salary* you got 10 or 15 years ago still continues to pin you down 15 years later, because the guy you got his first salary 15 years ago was ahead of you then, and stays ahead with new roles.

A lot of recruiters still have no idea about the law and regularly ask me for my current/previous salary, and I have to educate them "I don't mind giving this to you, but y'know, it's illegal for you to ask me about this."

It's still legal to ask for salary requirements, and I think that's fine. I don't want to waste my time interviewing somewhere if the company's idea of a competitive salary is way off from what my idea of a competitive salary is. I'm up front with recruiters and tell them "This is what i'm looking for if I'm going to leave my current job," it's about 25/75 split on the conversation continues after then.
 
R

Rahvar

Member
Sweden is heavily unionized. Many lines of work have no individual pay. It's all based on work experience in the field. Obviously there are plenty that are not, but they will just ask you what you are looking for rather than what you are making.

Also many larger companies require a copy of your criminal record and sometimes your financials.

Edit: as in a credit check. Don't want to hire someone in debt that is an embezzling risk.
 
S

Somnid

Member
My current job refused to budge when I told them no, basically I wouldn't get an offer without telling them. Luckily, they pay very well regardless but I got a bit nervous when the background check people asked me for pay stubs because I didn't know if that was something they shared or not and I definitely tacked on a buffer to get them to go forward.
 
W

WedgeX

Banned
Good for California. My wife continually gets offered lower salaries compared to her peers due to the salary she started off at, despite her years of experience and education, since her new employers always peg her new salary to her previous ones. Never taking into account benefits and the like.
 
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