How Banning Salary History Questions will Affect YOU

The bill proposing a ban on employers asking applicants about their salary history is projected to be brought to the House of Representatives this week (Gurchiek, 2016)! The bill, designed by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., is meant to bring equality to women and minorities who tend to get paid less for doing the same basic job functions as their coworkers.

Asking for salary history is a basic HR function for many modern companies. The bill will definitely affect virtually everyone in the job market as well as employers and HR enthusiasts. Also, the bill will enable current employees to take their employers to court for unequal pay and receive up to $10,000 in damages if it is proven that the employer is using previous salary history information to determine current pay. The bill is clearly forcing everyone to rethink the way American organizations are paying their employees.

This is not a small or unimportant proposed bill, this will revolutionize the way employers think about the value of their employees and while some may not agree with this new bill, everyone will have to abide by its regulations. Many people have commented about how they were disappointed by the salary offered by potential employers, and this is due mostly to the fact that hiring managers will base pay on previous salary; however, a person's previous salary ultimately has nothing to do with the position they are starting. A new job means new tasks and responsibilities, and paying someone a dollar more per hour than their previous position solely on the premise of that past position is not fair and should be considered unethical. I believe that the new bill will enforce higher ethics in the hiring processes for employers and I highly agree with the regulations behind what will be called the Pay Equity for All Act of 2016 (H.R. 6030).

Kathy Gurchiek (2016) makes an excellent point about why the proposed bill is important: The problem with unequal pay among women and minorities begins as early as the moment new potential employees graduate from college. When individuals are beginning entry level jobs, they are not only subject to low pay, but also the typical lower pay that women and minorities are unfortunately predisposed to getting. Once this trend begins, and employers continually give only slightly higher pay than the last position held, it can be nearly impossible to land a job with a substantially higher salary. Without any changes to our current system of salary based on previous salary, the pay gap between genders and minorities will not finally close until 2059 (Gurchiek, 2016)! The time to change these trends is now! Let's not wait until 2059 to make pay equality become a reality.

Reference

Gurchiek, K. (2016) Bill Banning Salary History Questions Goes Before House. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-news/pages/bill-banning-salary-history-questions-goes-before-house.aspx