Why every small thing has to become a law?... Just say "no, thank you" to question about salary.
New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary
501–510 of 680 posts
Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary
#502> 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. Hmm, I'd never thought about that angle,but I guess it makes sense. No word on if they are allowed to use Equifax, etc to pull salary data from? EDIT: looking at the bill it looks like querying Equifax…
Calling this a gender issue is like saying "we're raising the minimum wage to help women".
The law benefits male employees just as much as it benefits women. Lawmakers and PR teams just like to spin everything as addressing the gender gap to appeal to society-wide damsel in distress syndrome.
Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary
#503Why every small thing has to become a law?... Just say "no, thank you" to question about salary.
Lack of wage growth? Gender disparity?
Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary
#504> 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. Hmm, I'd never thought about that angle,but I guess it makes sense. No word on if they are allowed to use Equifax, etc to pull salary data from? EDIT: looking at the bill it looks like querying Equifax…
Calling this a gender issue is like saying "we're raising the minimum wage to help women". The law benefits male employees just as much as it benefits women. Lawmakers and PR teams just like to spin everything as addressing the gender gap to appeal to society-wide damsel in distress syndrome.
Not sure about that. It helps anyone who has been systematically discriminated in hiring against over time.
When you start a new job, it's not uncommon for your new employer to offer you a salary that's X% higher than your old one, using that as a base. If your old salary was lower due to discrimination, you'd start with a lower base, and would get less in the new job than someone who was not previously discriminated against.
Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary
#505Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do - I'm not sure how they licence it though or what data sources they use but I've seen that their data on high income households is the best in the business and shockingly accurate. However, I can't imagine the compliance nightmare that would exist around a process that lets HR people look up people's equifax information. If they get a full report, it could contain information about disabilities, national orig…
They (The work Number/Equifax) don't license it at all. Company's pay for the privilege in fact. It's sold as outsourcing the "costly" HR task of providing salary data themselves. Other companys or individuals then pay Equifax $35 to make a single enquiry or subscribe at a monthly rate. Users include 82% of all F500 companies and they have 225 employment records. My company uses it :( http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news…
Shameless plug for something I wrote today, in case you’re wondering what companies use it for and what you can do about that
“Developer employee cheatsheet: WTF is Salary Benchmarking?“
https://codeformore.com/developer-employee-cheatsheet-wtf-sa...
Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary
#506Earlier quoted context omitted.
Kind of off topic but should one always hide their current salary, even if it's above market rate (given their experience on paper)? It seems as though if an employer were only looking to spend so much on a hire, then if you're already likely above that number, wouldn't it save both you and the employer's time? I can see the obvious downside of sharing a relatively low salary, but it seems like there could be benefit…
I never consider interviewing to be a waste of time. At the very least I get some very valuable practice out of it, learn more about what's out there, and meet some interesting people. Even if they wind up not hiring you because they find out you're too expensive for their current budget, their budget might increase in the future and they might try to hire you again. Or the people who you made a favorable-enough impr…
Previous discussion for this comment - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14060327
Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary
#507Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gargoyle is responding to "No word on if they are allowed to use Equifax, etc to pull salary data from?"
This is so dumb. Employers can research candidate history without any chance of getting caught, and it's an obvious goal of most ethical (1st amendment respecting) hackers to make sure it stays that way.
I'm curious, how does the 1st Amendment play into this?
Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary
#508Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure. I can ask for salary history once the individual is no longer an applicant and if I can’t confirm they told the truth, I can fire them on the spot without cause. California is an at will employment state.
So yes you can do that now, but is this any different than saying you are going to be a bully just because you can?
Well, I punch people and take their money. Most people complain about morals, but hey this is how I earn the most money. You can't blame me for trying to maximize my profits.
Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary
#509Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s like a store charging you to try on the clothes you don’t buy. I wouldn’t like that.
Employers don't buy employees. That's already the law. So... No. It is toatally not like that and hopefully such a law will help clarify the point to any who miss it. Such a law will also provide balances in an unbalanced power situation and enforce economic efficiencies on an inefficient process. I'm not a lawmaker nor an employer, though, so I'll leave the suggestion for someone else to pick up.
Employers do buy the labor of employees. Think of the employee as the store and the labor as the clothes.
Re: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary
#510Earlier quoted context omitted.
>you generally have to give your income. Well, you certainly don't have to give your "real" income. Aspirational income is fine.
Wouldn't applying for credit based on "aspirational" finances be fraud?
Well, if you phoney up some W2s on your laser printer to apply for a mortgage, that might be a problem.
But (on credit card applications) I've always put a 6-figure income in when asked. Even as a college student with an income of $0.