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Philadelphia Poised to Ban Employers from Asking Hires About Salary History

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61–70 of 244 posts

Re: Philadelphia Poised to Ban Employers from Asking Hires About Salary History

#61
Interesting that various people here are horrified by restrictions on what you can ask in an interview. In the UK there are various restrictions on what you are allowed to ask, such as a candidates age. Actually the main risk to a business from this is a careless interviewer asking by mistake.

An enlightened employer should not find any of this restricting at all. All of the worst interviewers I have faced have always asked about my salary, and recruitment consultants always do (they also tend to lie about your expectations to potential employers in order to get interviews). It is a deliberate attempt to screw you down and is totally unnecessary.

Re: Philadelphia Poised to Ban Employers from Asking Hires About Salary History

#62
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You will always need the job more than Comcast will need you Where is the evidence for this? This is by no means an obvious claim. No one in the world needs "the job," even though most people need "a job." Do companies exist that are more moral/popular/friendly than others? Of course. And some of them are successful in part because people want them to succeed due to their aforementioned characteristics. That is fre…

You have a very naive, non-nuanced, and absolutist view of the world. > Actually, this is completely false. You have a pretty good understanding of what they pay employees in similar positions (if you've ever heard of Glassdoor), Are you serious? Do you really think Glassdoor is a legitimate authority for salary at companies? They do zero verification and are mostly dependent on people's honesty. Personally, I've sig…

I agree, 100%, with everything you said. Ver good response.

Except.... "You are not free to walk around naked."

Funny thing, in Oregon, nudity is considered constitutionally protected speech! You might get hauled off for walking around in the nud, but people have fought that and won in court!

Re: Philadelphia Poised to Ban Employers from Asking Hires About Salary History

#63
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what you're getting at. No one said things should be banned by default. Now that it is up for debate, as you mention, the question still is: why allow it? What benefits does it serve?

I'm rather indifferent on the issue - I guess by default that means I'm in favour of the current status quo But if you're going to ban something you have to have a good reason to ban it, not lack of a reason to keep it.

Ah, well, I'm more of a "ban by default" kind of person. As for the answer to implicit question:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13452727

Re: Philadelphia Poised to Ban Employers from Asking Hires About Salary History

#64
post #7

An important detail: Comcast, backed by the local Chamber of Commerce, has threatened to sue the city over this law. On what basis? The corporation's Constitutional First Amendment free speech right to ask the question: http://www.investopedia.com/news/comcast-threatens-sue-city-... Are these the same free speech rights the Supreme Court recently bestowed on the corporations? I remember that at the time legal analyst…

Imagine if media corporations had free speech rights!

Re: Philadelphia Poised to Ban Employers from Asking Hires About Salary History

#65
Good. Put the negotiating power back into the hands of the employees. Get an offer. See that it's too low based on previous compensation and then say so. And then proceed from there. I've burned my own ability to negotiate by sharing current salaries before but that was with recruiters.

Re: Philadelphia Poised to Ban Employers from Asking Hires About Salary History

#66
post #7

An important detail: Comcast, backed by the local Chamber of Commerce, has threatened to sue the city over this law. On what basis? The corporation's Constitutional First Amendment free speech right to ask the question: http://www.investopedia.com/news/comcast-threatens-sue-city-... Are these the same free speech rights the Supreme Court recently bestowed on the corporations? I remember that at the time legal analyst…

One of the more out there free speech defenses no?

Re: Philadelphia Poised to Ban Employers from Asking Hires About Salary History

#67

Interesting that various people here are horrified by restrictions on what you can ask in an interview. In the UK there are various restrictions on what you are allowed to ask, such as a candidates age. Actually the main risk to a business from this is a careless interviewer asking by mistake. An enlightened employer should not find any of this restricting at all. All of the worst interviewers I have faced have alway…

> In the UK there are various restrictions on what you are allowed to ask, such as a candidates age.

In the US, asking the question isn't itself illegal, but it's an incredibly bad idea to ask, because discriminating based on the answer is illegal.

Re: Philadelphia Poised to Ban Employers from Asking Hires About Salary History

#68
post #60
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You will always need the job more than Comcast will need you Where is the evidence for this? This is by no means an obvious claim. No one in the world needs "the job," even though most people need "a job." Do companies exist that are more moral/popular/friendly than others? Of course. And some of them are successful in part because people want them to succeed due to their aforementioned characteristics. That is fre…

>> > You will always need the job more than Comcast will need you > Where is the evidence for this? It does not require a great deal of imagination to understand that a large corporation and single prospective employee are not equal parties. If you fail to get a job, you will starve. If Comcast fails to hire you, they most clearly will not face an existential crisis. This is most certainly not a free market at work.…

Nothing about a free market requires all power dynamics to be equal among all participants - that would be impossible without regulation, and a free market must by definition be free of any regulatory influence.

Re: Philadelphia Poised to Ban Employers from Asking Hires About Salary History

#69
post #60
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You will always need the job more than Comcast will need you Where is the evidence for this? This is by no means an obvious claim. No one in the world needs "the job," even though most people need "a job." Do companies exist that are more moral/popular/friendly than others? Of course. And some of them are successful in part because people want them to succeed due to their aforementioned characteristics. That is fre…

>> > You will always need the job more than Comcast will need you > Where is the evidence for this? It does not require a great deal of imagination to understand that a large corporation and single prospective employee are not equal parties. If you fail to get a job, you will starve. If Comcast fails to hire you, they most clearly will not face an existential crisis. This is most certainly not a free market at work.…

>It does not require a great deal of imagination to understand that a large corporation and single prospective employee are not equal parties. If you fail to get a job, you will starve. If Comcast fails to hire you, they most clearly will not face an existential crisis.

Is Comcast the only company hiring people? If you don't get a job with Comcast you get a job with a different company. That is a market, many sellers of labor, many buyers of labor. The buyers look for the best labor and the sellers look for the best price.

Re: Philadelphia Poised to Ban Employers from Asking Hires About Salary History

#70

Interesting that various people here are horrified by restrictions on what you can ask in an interview. In the UK there are various restrictions on what you are allowed to ask, such as a candidates age. Actually the main risk to a business from this is a careless interviewer asking by mistake. An enlightened employer should not find any of this restricting at all. All of the worst interviewers I have faced have alway…

> In the UK there are various restrictions on what you are allowed to ask, such as a candidates age. In the US, asking the question isn't itself illegal, but it's an incredibly bad idea to ask, because discriminating based on the answer is illegal.

It's only illegal if they can prove that you discriminated based on their age. This is why companies never tell a prospective hire why they've declined to hire them, instead they just tell them that it's a poor culture fit. Poor culture fits aren't illegal, so you can feel safe not hiring based on culture.

Especially if the part of their culture that doesn't fit is a protected class.

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