Massachusetts Bans Employers from Asking Applicants About Previous Pay • Hacker News Board

Re: Massachusetts Bans Employers from Asking Applicants About Previous Pay

#781

Post by drdeadringer » Sat, Aug 06, 2016, 5:23 PM UTC

pluma wrote: post #763

drdeadringer wrote: post #746

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How//Why is being privacy-conscious troublemaking?

I'm not sure you're aware I'm speaking from the hypothetical position of the kind of company that would penalise candidates for not disclosing their previous salary. From that perspective it should be obvious: if you're a privacy-minded individual, you'll be a bigger hassle to deal with than someone who's blissfully oblivious to privacy concerns. You might call out technically illegal practices others might be willin…

I have blind-spots of dense thinking. I appreciate your response. In particular...

> You might call out technically illegal practices others might be willing to put up with, for example.

It routinely still amazes me that companies want armies of Yes Men to willingly go forth into that good night at the drop of a paper-clip without so much as a "yes but".

You know what that is? An army of dumb-AI robots, which we already have but not to grand-high scale.

Re: Massachusetts Bans Employers from Asking Applicants About Previous Pay

#782

Post by fizx » Sat, Aug 06, 2016, 6:43 PM UTC

cmdrfred wrote: post #779

fizx wrote: post #774

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All things are never equal. Even assuming that you had an identical prior on the two candidates, the information that one person was willing to do a job for half price would make me doubt his intelligence.

So you always go for the guy who requests the highest salary?

If in some artificial scenario, I had to blind hire one of two candidates with functionally identical resumes, where one asks for market value, and the other asks for half market value, yeah, I take the higher salary..

Re: Massachusetts Bans Employers from Asking Applicants About Previous Pay

#783

Post by louisswiss » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 9:51 AM UTC

geebee wrote: post #772

louisswiss wrote: post #659

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a developer and have a very close friend who is a nurse. I am pretty sure I could teach her enough to do an entry level web dev job within 2-3 months, whereas there is no way I would be mentally or emotionally prepared to deal with working life as a 'real' nurse within that short amount of time, if ever.

I couldn't agree with you more that nursing is a tough job that deserves excellent pay (though out here in SF, registered nurses do earn more, at the median, than software application developers, though this is a bit unusual and not the case in most areas). It would take a tremendous amount of time, training, and effort to turn a software developer into a registered nurse, no doubt. I am pretty bummed to hear a devel…

This is all very interesting, but has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with my point. I am saying that both web dev and nursing can be very challenging, yet while everybody of college ability could learn enough web dev to function well in a junior position (and your description definitely wasn't a junior position at any of the companies I have seen), very few have the emotional and psychological strength to work as a nurse - especially given the difference in pay.

The world knows how difficult software development is - we don't need to put down other professions (which equally difficult yet in a different way)

Re: Massachusetts Bans Employers from Asking Applicants About Previous Pay

#784

Post by geebee » Sat, Aug 13, 2016, 3:46 PM UTC

louisswiss wrote: post #783

geebee wrote: post #772

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't agree with you more that nursing is a tough job that deserves excellent pay (though out here in SF, registered nurses do earn more, at the median, than software application developers, though this is a bit unusual and not the case in most areas). It would take a tremendous amount of time, training, and effort to turn a software developer into a registered nurse, no doubt. I am pretty bummed to hear a devel…

This is all very interesting, but has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with my point. I am saying that both web dev and nursing can be very challenging, yet while everybody of college ability could learn enough web dev to function well in a junior position (and your description definitely wasn't a junior position at any of the companies I have seen), very few have the emotional and psychological strength to work a…

We're having this discussion in slow motion.

We're both looking at exactly the same words, sometimes people just reach different conclusions. You've said that we don't need to put down other professions, but consider your words about software development and nursing...

"I am pretty sure I could teach her enough to do an entry level web dev job within 2-3 months, whereas there is no way I would be mentally or emotionally prepared to deal with working life as a 'real' nurse within that short amount of time, if ever."

I do see that as putting down software development in order to build up nursing. Like I said, we're looking at the same words, so this is just a matter of perspective.

Perspectives sometimes vary because of experience. I actually don't agree, as a general condition, that the world knows how difficult software development is. Some of the world does, and some software development positions are clearly respected. But as a general statement? No, I really don't agree - I see too many developers working loud, distracting open offices, back visibility, methodologies that reduce autonomy and long term thinking the to micromanaged 24 hour "sprints", and a career path where "successful" people should term out before age 35.

I certainly wouldn't argue that this describes all dev jobs, but it sure does describe a lot of them. I do think that the kind of denigration of the field I'm hearing here does contribute to this.

Re: Massachusetts Bans Employers from Asking Applicants About Previous Pay

#785

Post by josh_fyi » Mon, Aug 15, 2016, 8:49 PM UTC

ionised wrote: post #770

josh_fyi wrote: post #618

If asked, say "My previous contract prohibits sharing compensation details [as it probably does], and I take my commitments very seriously."

Is that actually a thing that can exist in employment contracts? Because it would be a great way to shut down anyone asking about your salary. If it's not then they're going know you're just trying to avoid answering the question.

As far as I know it is quite common.