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New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

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

#121

Post by oh_sigh »

cracell wrote: post #114
geebee wrote: post #60

I'd prefer to see this go in the other direction and make all salary information public. Right now, employers have far more information than employees, and I don't think this law will do much to change that. To me, it's similar to real estate - imagine if only sellers had access to the database of exactly what every house sold for and when, but buyers had to go with unsubstantiated, scattered rumors. Or vise versa. T…

No thank you. My salary is private. I do not want my family and friends to know how much I make. I also have never told a potential employer my salary. I believe it stopped things from going on to the interview stage but the way they took my refusal made me assume they paid under market rate.

Ok, but know that completely rational nations have decided to go with OPs way(like Norway)

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

#122

Post by MBCook »

distances wrote: post #52
rpowers wrote: post #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.

Isn't the rent usually fixed and known to all renters-to-be? Or did I miss your meaning?

The first contract term is. The implication is by knowing your salary they can do a much better job guessing how high they can raise your rent the next year (or whatever) without you leaving.

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

#123

Post by matt_wulfeck »

cracell wrote: post #114
geebee wrote: post #60

I'd prefer to see this go in the other direction and make all salary information public. Right now, employers have far more information than employees, and I don't think this law will do much to change that. To me, it's similar to real estate - imagine if only sellers had access to the database of exactly what every house sold for and when, but buyers had to go with unsubstantiated, scattered rumors. Or vise versa. T…

No thank you. My salary is private. I do not want my family and friends to know how much I make. I also have never told a potential employer my salary. I believe it stopped things from going on to the interview stage but the way they took my refusal made me assume they paid under market rate.

They don’t need to ask you anymore. You self-reported it to a credit agency and friends, family, potential employers can get that plus other financial information from these agencies.

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

#124

Post by dinospaceship »

maxxxxx wrote: post #115
geebee wrote: post #60

I'd prefer to see this go in the other direction and make all salary information public. Right now, employers have far more information than employees, and I don't think this law will do much to change that. To me, it's similar to real estate - imagine if only sellers had access to the database of exactly what every house sold for and when, but buyers had to go with unsubstantiated, scattered rumors. Or vise versa. T…

I remember seeing a table of salaries for each H-1 visa. I think the information is public.

Yeah, you can find it here: http://h1bdata.info/

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

#125

Post by ianai »

geebee wrote: post #60

I'd prefer to see this go in the other direction and make all salary information public. Right now, employers have far more information than employees, and I don't think this law will do much to change that. To me, it's similar to real estate - imagine if only sellers had access to the database of exactly what every house sold for and when, but buyers had to go with unsubstantiated, scattered rumors. Or vise versa. T…

Actually in this case it’s the buyers of labor (employers) that have all the market power. Denything them this additional information gives the producers of labor an edge through asymmetric information, theoretically. In practice, I don’t buy it. Sophisticated entities with lots of resources (aka employers) will always find a way to game any situation to their benefit. They could simply use this as a reason to pay everyone less.

I’m all for empowering employees but this doesn’t seem like quite an improvement.

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

#126

Post by ericd »

wavefunction wrote: post #28
gfosco wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much worse than that... The recent "The Work Number" incident showed they shared access to your entire paycheck history, in detail.

at the granular level of per paycheck, even

So they're buying it from ADP?

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

#127

Post by twiceaday »

komali2 wrote: post #111
disiplus wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how about telling the candidates in front that the expected salary is in the range of x-y.

Because every time I told a candidate a range, I'd hear back "ok so the salary is {{max_salary}}, cool." Nobody in the contracting world wants to undersell themselves. If somebody on the team is getting 75/hr, everybody better get 75/hr or hell gets raised. This is why the O&G industry out in Houston pushes back hard against any salary-sharing.

Give just the x then. That will end most conversations quickly.

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

#128

Post by dragonwriter »

randyrand wrote: post #16

Well... there goes your expectation of an increased salary without negotiation. And they did this to improve the gender wage gap? People who don't negotiate will be stuck with their same salary year over year, while those that negotiate will have steadily increasing salaries.

> there goes your expectation of an increased salary without negotiation

I dunno, since the law requires employees to disclose salary ranges to applicants on request, the rule “apply only if (new position salary) > (current salary)” seems to not require negotiation.

OTOH, disclosed ranges from emloyers but no disclosed salary from employees makes salary negotiation a lot easier for employees, too. I don't think the gender wage gap is because women refuse to negotiate, though it's probably at least in part because, in the status quo, they come into it in worse position because of, among other factors, salary history.

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

#129

Post by joneil »

gordon_freeman wrote: post #102

Just to be a devil's advocate here : in a hypothetical scenario wouldn't this allow a candidate to give a fake inflated salary of his past job being well aware that it's illegal for recruiter or employer to investigate if this number is true? Edit: I think I misunderstood the new law proposed here. It is not even legal for employer to ask the salary of past job. In that case this situation would not even occur.

The candidate wouldn't need to give a fake inflated salary... the company isn't allowed to ask about salary history at all.

Even if they weren't, I don't see any real trouble with your scenario (other than that I think establishing a pattern of lying in a relationship so early probably isn't great). But if my last job underpaid me, and now I want to earn market rate... I'd be grateful to not have to answer questions about my previous salary.

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

#130

Post by monocasa »

gordon_freeman wrote: post #102

Just to be a devil's advocate here : in a hypothetical scenario wouldn't this allow a candidate to give a fake inflated salary of his past job being well aware that it's illegal for recruiter or employer to investigate if this number is true? Edit: I think I misunderstood the new law proposed here. It is not even legal for employer to ask the salary of past job. In that case this situation would not even occur.

Why is the candidate even being asked this question in this case?

Also, your hypothetical situation is happening already.

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