By: Martha T. Moore, Stateline, Pew Charitable Trusts

Photo: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor

Next time you get asked, “What’s your current salary?” in a job interview, check your ZIP code. It is now illegal for employers to ask job applicants about their previous salary in at least eight states and eight counties and cities.  

The laws and ordinances passed in the last two years are aimed at narrowing the persistent pay gap between men and women. A prospective employer who knows your current salary can offer you a pay bump based on that figure – or keep your new salary low. If you’re a woman, you likely make less in your current job than a male recruit with the same skills and experience.

An employer can offer a woman a pay bump for a new job and still pay her less than a man.

“We’re seeing tremendous momentum behind the idea of banning questions about prior salary,” says Vicki Shabo, vice president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, which advocates for state pay-history bans. “It’s a specific, very actionable thing that can be put in place in a proactive way … and helps to stop the cycle of systemic wage disparities.”

Prohibiting salary-history questions likely benefits managerial and professional job candidates the most, Shabo said. But it also will benefit people who might have moved from a low-cost region to a more competitive market, or who took time off from work. “That’s a lot of people in an era where caregiving is common, where migration is common.”

Even proponents of eliminating the question, however, aren’t sure whether wage-history bans will help close the gender pay gap. Business groups including chambers of commerce and the Society for Human Resource Management oppose the bans. Some economists think it could backfire on the women it is supposed to help. And two states, Wisconsin and Michigan, have enacted laws designed to pre-empt salary-history bans.

A Persistent Gap

Across all occupations, women working full time earn about 82 percent of what men do, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, which advocates for state pay-history bans.

It’s a disadvantage that follows women throughout their career, said Mary Pollock, a government relations coordinator for the Michigan chapter of the American Association of University Women. They’re not basing starting salaries on experience, she said.

“A lot of them want to find out the cheapest they can get an employee for, so they offer a bit more than the person is currently making,” Pollock said. And getting a lowball starting salary “goes right into how much Social Security you have, and how much 401(k) you have, and how much pension you have.”

Causes of the gender pay gap range from discrimination to women taking time off from work for caregiving and raising children, and negotiating less aggressively for raises. Research shows that women who negotiate for raises could be punished for it in ways that men aren’t.

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