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New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary

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Re: New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary

#71

Post by ransom1538 »

So people on HN are pro employers posting their employee salaries publicly but against previous companies asking what their salaries are. WTF. I must be missing something here.

I personally believe your salary is your business. Period. Getting salary information bad, forcing employees to divulge salaries from a position of power is disgusting.

Here is me being publicly quartered on HN for pushing back on forcing employees publicly posting salaries: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12805814

Re: New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary

#72

Post by eru »

Arizhel wrote: post #11
paulcole wrote: post #4

Good. Not enough people realize the best way to answer this question is with a straight-up lie.

Yep, take the true answer and inflate it 20% or more. Make them think they're getting a bargain.

If you are going to lie, just pick the number that's best for you. No need to have any relation with any true number.

Re: New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary

#73

Post by mbroshi »

CJefferson wrote: post #68
mbroshi wrote: post #63

The analogy is not perfect, but all the time people like to know how much a house or car sold for in the past, or how much a stock traded for the in past, etc. Seems like useful data. Now, I'm not advocating for or against this particular question, but I sure do hope there is data collected and studied on the effect this has in NY before anyone jumps to conclusions. I feel it's too easy to have a knee-jerk reaction o…

The problem is the one way communication. I would personally have no problem giving out my past salary, in return for the current salaries if all comparable current employees at the company.

You can refuse to answer their question. You can also ask them how much others are making at your position (and they can refuse to answer that, too). I don't see where the asymmetry is.

Re: New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary

#74

Post by ballenf »

gdulli wrote: post #47
mbillie1 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way to see the bigger picture for employee rights here.

I didn't say I'd fight against the existence of the law. I said people who are hurt by the law should retain the same negotiating power they had before rather than lose their right.

You won't lose any negotiating power. Just because they can't ask doesn't mean you can't counter an offer and ask for a higher salary. If they want you and think you're worth it, you'll get it. Just don't see them not being able to ask really shifting the negotiating power much if any for you.

Re: New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary

#75

Post by paul7986 »

Totally avoid this question Being asked by setting the salary you seek in stone before going to the interview. Especially if your working with a recruiter!

If they suddenly ask this question then they are trying to renege on their promise and for me it's time to go.

Re: New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary

#76

Post by davexunit »

Double_a_92 wrote: post #32
davexunit wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The free market is trash. Employers must be regulated.

Worker Unions should do that, not the state.

Unions are part of the solution, but so is the state. Unfortunately, the state has been destroying union power for years with things like "right to work" laws.

I happen to think that all workers should have protections, not just those in unions.

Re: New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary

#77

Post by dajohnson89 »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #25
dajohnson89 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is, recruiters/hiring managers will sometimes call your former employer to verify your actual salary.

If your former employer releases salary information without your consent, sue them into the ground.

I've had recruiters on two occassions ask for ph# of former employers, saying they just wanted to verify dates of employment and salary.

Re: New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary

#78

Post by eru »

cjbprime wrote: post #22
Ultramax wrote: post #10

Seems like an ethics test. Will you tell the truth about your previous low salary or lie to make sure you don't get lowballed? Then for the employer, will you decrease the salary to match previous low rates or wages? Or will you pay him/her the market rate regardless? Personally, I have always been asked how much I made at previous places. I prefer to give a range than specify individually.

> I prefer to give a range than specify individually. FWIW, this is likely almost as bad for you in the negotiation as giving the number. You will simply always get offers towards the bottom of your range. It is better to refuse to answer, and just say you're looking for a market rate salary for this role.

Giving the number doesn't have to be bad for you. (But it can be.)

But yeah, never give any range. Not when talking about previous compensation, and not when talking about what you want. Just give them straight up numbers, if you give anything at all.

And you should definitely give them a number about how much you want to be paid. You want to set the first reference point. And yes, that means you will have to do your own due diligence about how much the market can currently bear for your (interviewing) skills. But you need to know these numbers anyway.

Re: New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary

#79

Post by vwcx »

josh_fyi wrote: post #55
phil21 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It took me a while to understand that most people don't realize you can lie on this with almost zero downside. Very few employers are checking, and very few times is that information legally available to them. The most they can typically get is the "typical" salary for a given position at a large company. There are exceptions of course, and the good ole' boys network can sometimes run deep. But in the end, if you are…

You have some leeway. If you say "My compensation was $70K" and your salary was $50K, you may well be telling the truth.

Exactly! My company's internal benefits page tells me my compensation is "salary + employer side of medical, dental, vision + employer 401k match". I always chuckle at how high that number is compared to my actual paycheck...

Re: New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary

#80

Post by southphillyman »

literallycancer wrote: post #64
nommm-nommm wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful!! There's quite a few ways to verify past salary. Specially some employers report employment information to private databases and your potential employer runs a "employment report," like banks run a credit report, as part of a mandatory background check. To see if you lied. Of course, they can't do that without your permission but agreeing to a background check is a condition of employment. The database i am…

I'm not a recruiter, nor a hiring manager, but personally, I'd be more concerned about the competence of someone who answered truthfully. Yes, engineers probably aren't hired for being good at salary negotiation, but still.. it isn't hard to figure out that telling the truth isn't beneficial.

I'm probably making $30k less than I could be making right now because I tell the truth! Had no idea so many people lied. Makes sense to do so but didn't seem to be worth the risk to me. I wish I had a way to quanitfy how many companies actually check for this. My last two times out I used the same recruiter so couldn't really lie to him, I think going forward I won't work with his agency and just make up my number.
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