Why Asking About Current Pay Is the New Taboo for Prospective Employers

Major companies have instructed recruiters not to ask job candidates about salary or benefits in their previous employment, as more employers stop using past wages as a guide for setting their future salaries due to new laws designed to close wage gaps in the workforce, reports the Wall Street Journal . In 2016, New York City and Massachusetts passed rules barring employers from pressing job seekers to report salary history, and more than 12 additional cities and states have done the same since then. Advocates say withholding information about past pay encourages employers to assess the value of a job instead of the applicant. Employers say providing candidates with a salary range based on skills and experience can help fix inconsistencies in how different employees were valued in another role or setting. "These new laws have created a great opportunity for employers to do some self-reflection," says Fisher & Phillips partner Cheryl Pinarchick. She also notes many are considering whether they can warrant differences in the salaries that their current workers make. Pay disparities for employees often linger when people are hired at lower salaries early in their career and then that compensation becomes the basis of future salary negotiations. This gap can widen due to differences in candidates' willingness to negotiate and success rates in those discussions. A U.S. Court of Appeals recently ruled that businesses may be held liable for discrepancies in their workers' wages even if the imbalance is rooted in a previous employer, adding further pressure to correct pay gaps based on gender, race, or other nonperformance-related variables.