Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

m.sfgate.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 680 posts

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

#291

Post by dcow »

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…

Visa salaries and job titles already are public, but anonymized. It's also not too hard to connect the dots when you've only got one Application Security Cloud Architect because you had to make up a position specific enough to disqualify domestic applicants.

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

#292

Post by jdavis703 »

everdev wrote: post #212
Sangermaine wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>No thank you. >My salary is private. I do not want my family and friends to know how much I make. But have you thought about why you feel this way? I assume you are American, as am I, and so I understand we've been socialized by our culture to feel this way, but it really makes no sense. It's just a way to harm workers by keeping us from seeing when we're being screwed. I'd even go so far as to wager that this entir…

All Americans have a right to privacy. Their reason for privacy doesn't matter and doesn't need to make sense to you. Compensation is an important conversation to make sure a job is a win/win. I think "What would you like to be paid?" is the most relevant question anyway.

The price of your house is public, the value of your car is public, and most people can roughly guess what your salary is based on your job title, geography and experience level.

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

#293

Post by tylersmith »

vilmosi wrote: post #280
icelancer wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living below my means doesn't mean I live like my neighbors. My house is roughly the same as everyone around me. The contents of the house are not (and they are private), and yet I still live well below my means. I have a semi-nice TV, and more importantly, expensive computers like pretty much everyone on HN to do my job.

[deleted]

Their entire point is that publicizing their salary eliminates that privacy by telling people their income. It's a proxy measurement. Even if all they have in the house is a can of beans, publicly making more than their neighbors puts a target on them.

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

#294

Post by ch4s3 »

lr4444lr wrote: post #246
vilmosi wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> Yes. I don't want to increase my attractiveness regarding a house robbery, as I live well below my means If you live below your means, why would robbers target you? They don't care how much you make, they care what TV you have.

How about kidnapping your loved ones for ransom?

ah yes, the booming American kidnapping business. /s

Seriously though, it's not hard to find targets for this sort of thing by looking at census data and sales records for nice homes, yet it really never happens in the US. WHen was the last time you heard of some random lawyer, ceo, or banker getting kidnapped in the US?

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

#295

Post by defen »

Possibly a dumb question, but can any lawyers here speculate as to whether this law will pass constitutional muster? Is this a form of prior restraint that violates the first amendment? Comparing to things like protected categories (age, gender, religion, marital status, etc) my understanding is that it's not illegal for employers to ask these things, but doing so potentially opens them up to discrimination lawsuits if the person is not hired.

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

#296

Post by jdavis703 »

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.

Certain visas such as the E3 publicly disclose what the salary is for a given position. Workers in the federal government also have a public record of their salary.

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

#298

Post by [deleted] »

tylersmith wrote: post #293
vilmosi wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Their entire point is that publicizing their salary eliminates that privacy by telling people their income. It's a proxy measurement. Even if all they have in the house is a can of beans, publicly making more than their neighbors puts a target on them.

[deleted]

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

#299

Post by zo1 »

closeparen wrote: post #196
Sangermaine wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>No thank you. >My salary is private. I do not want my family and friends to know how much I make. But have you thought about why you feel this way? I assume you are American, as am I, and so I understand we've been socialized by our culture to feel this way, but it really makes no sense. It's just a way to harm workers by keeping us from seeing when we're being screwed. I'd even go so far as to wager that this entir…

One possibility is that extended family may feel that you make more money than a person could possibly need, and ought to share it with them. Easier to avoid this tension if you don’t let on how well you’re doing.

Well, a hard-figure is not really required to cause jealousy and tension. Simply not struggling like the other family member is a signal. Or perhaps a nicer car, latest gadgets/tech, etc. Unless you never enjoy your wealth, people will notice it.
Post reply on HN