Live data from Hacker News

New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

m.sfgate.com

31–40 of 680 posts

Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

#32

This is a ban on employers -- afaik, recruiters can still ask (and many probably will ask). But, IANAL. (Correction: It looks like recruiters fall under this prohibition too, if they are acting as agents of the employer.) I personally never answer questions about my previous salary or my expected salary. When HR has given me forms to fill out that have questions about either I just leave them blank, and they've never…

Recruiters need to find candidates for a given range.

Considering the breath of paygrades for even similar experience level jobs across the tech sector it’s not that surprising.

If a company looks for some one for say 100-120K you are wasting your time and the recruiters time if you won’t take any offers below 180.

Whilst you might find an employer who’ll be willing and able to go 5-10% over the max it’s not likely that you’ll find many who’ll be able to go 50% over max unless it’s a blanket employment without fixed ranges for both experience and salary.

Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

#33
post #23
post #14

Not an American, couldn't you just tell them a made up number?

Could be considered fraud. This law removes a lot of concern by providing clarification. Some employers ask for pay stubs, but I agree with you, making up a number should have been OK on the grounds of privacy. Even creating a fake pay stub for this seems reasonably moral if the sole purpose is to set the salary expectation at a new job. Current salary and value aren't necessarily correlated and hires should be judge…

Not fraud. Employer's aren't allowed to give it out either. So you really have no incentive not to fib

Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

#34
> The goal is to narrow the gender wage gap. If a woman is paid less than a man doing the same job and a new employer bases her pay on her prior salary, gender discrimination can be perpetuated, the bill’s backers say.

Is it also banned for an applicant to inform the employer of their prior salary? If not, it would appear advantageous for non-below-average-salaried employees to being doing so, negating the effects of this intervention.(And for employers to silently discard applicants which do not voluntarily reveal salary history.)

Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

#35
I don't think this is a right way to go about trying to narrow the gender wage gap.

Half of the reason we have one (a wage gap) is because it's taboo in America to reveal how much you get paid with your co-workers. It makes no sense to me why that is the case, all it does it allow the company to screw you over more.

The solutions should be to have each company come up with there own publicly available pay scale that says you make this much and every year it will go up by X as you gain experience. AKA how to government does things, I'm not saying it's the best system, but you know if they are a gs13 step 5 they get paid X dollars regardless of anything.

Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

#36

This is a ban on employers -- afaik, recruiters can still ask (and many probably will ask). But, IANAL. (Correction: It looks like recruiters fall under this prohibition too, if they are acting as agents of the employer.) I personally never answer questions about my previous salary or my expected salary. When HR has given me forms to fill out that have questions about either I just leave them blank, and they've never…

Recruiters need to find candidates for a given range. Considering the breath of paygrades for even similar experience level jobs across the tech sector it’s not that surprising. If a company looks for some one for say 100-120K you are wasting your time and the recruiters time if you won’t take any offers below 180. Whilst you might find an employer who’ll be willing and able to go 5-10% over the max it’s not likely t…

Post salary range in ad?

Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

#37

Finally. I always wondered why wasn't it illegal in the first place.

Probably because it's always been legal for you to refuse to give that information.

And it was equally legal for companies to drop you from consideration for a job if you refused. :/

Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

#38
Really wish this would extend to apartment rent applications. I'm fine with a credit check, but they don't need to know how high they can increase my rent before I'll need to move.

edit I am referring to my experience renting apartments from Property Management run communities. (Think Essex or Prometheus) Rent increases every year with them.

Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

#40

> The goal is to narrow the gender wage gap. If a woman is paid less than a man doing the same job and a new employer bases her pay on her prior salary, gender discrimination can be perpetuated, the bill’s backers say. Is it also banned for an applicant to inform the employer of their prior salary? If not, it would appear advantageous for non-below-average-salaried employees to being doing so, negating the effects of…

If only above-average-salaried employees reveal salary, and companies discard applicants that don't voluntarily reveal salary history, then that just means that companies end up paying more because they'll only hire people that got paid more than average in the past.

Which is to say, no, I don't think it'll work out that way.

Post reply on HN