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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

#451
post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going forward I'm including calculations for free lunch, the relatively excessive amount of PTO days I get every year (30+), and the relatively affordable insurance I have ($140 per monthly for a family). Locally I think it will be hard to get a similar benefit package so I'm going to quantify those benefits and bake them into my "salary".

At a previous company I found an internal excel document with everyone's salary, from the CEO down to his assistant. On the doc my salary was inflated ~25K to what my actual gross was, I can only assume these perks/benefits were included on top of the salary. But it shows they see that on paper that's how they saw my salary hit. I think it would be wise to include these in your previous "salary". I never did find any…

There is a fully loaded cost for an employee. It includes the salary, the companies portion of taxes, benefits, etc... The employee may not know those numbers exactly, but the employer must because that is real cash leaving the door every month.

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

#452
In the interviews I've had so far the 'how much are you making' question comes up at the beginning of the process almost everywhere. It's an obvious lowball play, anywhere that is super aggressive about asking for this is a giant red flag to me.

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

#453

Mandating that employers are forbidden to ask about previous salary seems like a pathway to more government intrusion into a complex process. Part of job seeking involves learning how to negotiate with a potential employer. I've side-stepped many an inappropriate or premature question about salary with "Are you making an offer," followed by agreement to disclose the "details" if and when such offer is forthcoming at…

No. Why should the negotiation have anything to do with the prospective employee's current salary?

Not to mention, you're saying that prospective employees shouldn't answer the question anyway. However, that only protects those who feel they're in a strong bargaining position. It does absolutely nothing to help those who aren't, and those are generally the ones that need the most help.

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

#454
post #326

This is the #1 rule I always tell people who are interviewing for a new job. Never tell a potential employer your past job salary, especially so if you are unhappy with that salary. When my girlfriend was interviewing for a new job two years ago we talked about this because the recruiter was very demanding about knowing what her current salary was and I told her to stay firm on it because the salary in her current jo…

Why should you be at an advantage? Why should the negotiations have anything to do with your current salary?

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

#455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The people I know who are like this are what I'd describe as "9-5" employees, don't learn anything outside of work, and basically do the bare minimum at everything. What's wrong being a 9-5 employee?

If you're a creative person, like a developer, it's inefficient. Context switching is expensive, and going home for the day is a big context switch. If it's 5:00 and you have 30 minutes left on something, most likely it'll take something like two hours tomorrow to get back into and finish it. If you always go home exactly at 5, it means you are either constantly being inefficient and doing the context switch, you are…

Or, I consider time with my family worth more than the context switch I'd have.

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

#456

Laws like this one that restrict businesses from asking questions that individuals could ask strikes me as very strange. I could ask my buddy how much he made at his last job. I couldn't ask my buddy how much he made at his last job if I'm considering hiring him to work at my company. Why is this information legal to acquire when I'm wearing my business hat vs when I'm wearing my friend hat?

It's like context is an actual thing.

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

#457
My experience with this was in London, a twitter.com recruiter contacted me a couple of years ago. At the time I was searching for a job so I replied that I was interested. We had the usual HR/Recruiter call. It ended with them asking how muh my previous employer was paying me. I said that was confidential and would not share. Their reply was "this information is mandatory and we cannot continue the process if you will not provide it." I said I wouldn't and it ended there... two months later their recruiter contacted me again saying it was ok for me not to share and provide expectations instead.

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

#458
post #372
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why you just say "around" and add 20% to your current salary. And even if a company does find out, who cares? What I made at a prior job has zero bearing on my next job. If the new company thinks I bring in enough value to be paid X, then they paying X should be fine.

Our internal recruiters ask but it's not a deal breaker if someone doesn't answer. You know what is a deal breaker? Lying. I've personally seen two offers rescinded after it came out that someone added an egregious amount of money to their previous salary (one to the effect of made approx $100k, said they made $185 and took $175 while complaining loudly about their "pay cut"). What sucks for them is: A) Everyone invo…

How did the recruiters find out?

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

#459
post #4

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

It's depressing to me how many responses there are on this, without anyone simply saying: "Lying is wrong" I know there are a lot of purely utilitarian thinkers around here, but is there no moral compass at all?

> is there no moral compass at all?

Yes but potential employers don't get the benefit of the doubt. I'm looking out for myself first.

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

#460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The people I know who are like this are what I'd describe as "9-5" employees, don't learn anything outside of work So, you just don't hire people with kids, medical problems or other responsibilities outside of work? If you want people to bone up give them time during the work day, have sr. devs run workshops on new tech you're adopting. Don't create the expectation people should work in their time off. If you want…

> Don't create the expectation people should work in their time off. I have no such expectation, nor did I say people should work in their time off. I think people need to keep up their education. Learning doesn't stop when you graduate. Your company should be willing to pay for training/courses/conferences, but I also think people that are passionate about things will naturally grow on their own. At the least, this…

Why isn't it acceptable to leave in the middle of a project? If I have a very regular after-work schedule (like picking kids up from daycare), I don't understand why I shouldn't leave at exactly the same time every day. Even if that means leaving something unfinished, that I'll get back to when I get back in the morning. And I might not have anything I can "do" by leaving 30 minutes early, because I can't go home and I can't get to (regular obligation) early.
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