New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary • Hacker News Board

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

#251

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 5:08 PM UTC

burkaman wrote: post #218

rodionos wrote: post #215

Don't have to ask. The data is open: https://gist.github.com/rodionos/b77080e028e3b680b2c1b5091ba... Source: https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/civil-list-2014 > The Civil List reports the agency code (DPT), first initial and last name (NAME), agency name (ADDRESS), title code (TTL #), pay class (PC), and salary (SAL-RATE) of individuals who were employed by the City of New York at any given time during the indicated y…

This bill applies to private companies too. In cases where a company discovers your past salary without asking, the bill makes it illegal to rely on that to determine an offer.

[deleted]

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

#252

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 5:09 PM UTC

pmoriarty wrote: post #43

I never answer questions about my past or expected salary, not to employers and not to recruiters. Most employers don't ask, and the few that have (perhaps by having a part of an employment form ask for previous salary) have never made my leaving that information out an issue. Most recruiters, if they even ask, respect my decision not to talk about it, but I've been pressed hard on this by a handful of recruiters, an…

[deleted]

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

#253

Post by aglavine » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 5:09 PM UTC

I advocate for all salary data being public.

To get a better salary and better work conditions cannot depend of hiding a figure. It is a weak position, to say the least.

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

#254

Post by lightbritefight » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 5:11 PM UTC

sitkack wrote: post #176

pmoriarty wrote: post #43

I never answer questions about my past or expected salary, not to employers and not to recruiters. Most employers don't ask, and the few that have (perhaps by having a part of an employment form ask for previous salary) have never made my leaving that information out an issue. Most recruiters, if they even ask, respect my decision not to talk about it, but I've been pressed hard on this by a handful of recruiters, an…

Both Google and Oracle made it a condition of getting hired. Meaning they were ready to walk away if previous pay wasn't disclosed. Oracle even wanted scans of W2s ...

Two big fish in a colossally big ocean.

Million of employers out there, many willing to pay at or near the same range without those onerous requirements.

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

#255

Post by ssambros » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 5:11 PM UTC

sitkack wrote: post #176

pmoriarty wrote: post #43

I never answer questions about my past or expected salary, not to employers and not to recruiters. Most employers don't ask, and the few that have (perhaps by having a part of an employment form ask for previous salary) have never made my leaving that information out an issue. Most recruiters, if they even ask, respect my decision not to talk about it, but I've been pressed hard on this by a handful of recruiters, an…

Both Google and Oracle made it a condition of getting hired. Meaning they were ready to walk away if previous pay wasn't disclosed. Oracle even wanted scans of W2s ...

How long ago was that? I have interviewed onsite last year with every company in the Big 4 and some smaller others, and none of them made an issue out of me not disclosing my previous salary even during offer negotiations.

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

#256

Post by pesfandiar » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 5:13 PM UTC

phil21 wrote: post #49

paulcole wrote: post #4

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

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…

> The correct answer is to say with what you think the current position is worth and what you want to get paid. There is no upside to being truthful here.

No. The correct answer is nothing. Maybe ask what their budget for the position is, but never give a number first.

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

#257

Post by pm24601 » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 5:15 PM UTC

> Underlying the bill is the notion that employers “anchor” the salaries they offer to potential employees based on their current or previous salary — if an employee had faced pay discrimination at a previous job, in other words, the employer’s subsequent lower than market value offer would effectively perpetuate the discrimination.

> “Being underpaid once should not condemn one to a lifetime of inequity,” said New York City Public Advocate Letitia James

... Or if a person does not know how to negotiate.

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

#258

Post by Arizhel » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 5:16 PM UTC

sitkack wrote: post #176

pmoriarty wrote: post #43

I never answer questions about my past or expected salary, not to employers and not to recruiters. Most employers don't ask, and the few that have (perhaps by having a part of an employment form ask for previous salary) have never made my leaving that information out an issue. Most recruiters, if they even ask, respect my decision not to talk about it, but I've been pressed hard on this by a handful of recruiters, an…

Both Google and Oracle made it a condition of getting hired. Meaning they were ready to walk away if previous pay wasn't disclosed. Oracle even wanted scans of W2s ...

>Oracle even wanted scans of W2s ...

Yet another bullet-point in why not to ever work at Oracle.

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

#259

Post by sneak » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 5:17 PM UTC

j2bax wrote: post #193

krenden9 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally lie any time a recruiter asks for my current/past salary. How much I lie depends on what I think I should be getting for the role, and how likely it is that they can and will confirm the numbers I gave. At my most recent past job, I was working for some guys at a small startup for next to nothing in salary (~$40k). I had a 10% stake in equity, but it was worth nothing, since the company was in debt. When I…

I hope I never hire someone like you by accident. I have a feeling it wouldn't take long until this outlook would lead to other problems in the workplace that would have you on to your next con.

It's not a con to negotiate a price and agree to it with mutual consent.

Anchoring a prospective customer of your labor to a high price is not a con. Nothing forces them to take the deal.

Please don't be a jerk.

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

#260

Post by garethsprice » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 5:17 PM UTC

Lots of people here talking from their own experience as highly skilled, in-demand professionals.

However, helping friends apply to jobs in other industries - specifically medical - I saw that most of the applications involved filling out an automated form that required prior salary information to complete.

There's no advantage to an employee from being forced to disclose this information and it perpetuates compensation discrepancies by gender/race/guts to ask. Very glad to see this made illegal.

Now, if they were really serious about fixing pay discrepancies, they'd make it mandatory to post salary ranges with job listings.