By preventing employers from questioning a woman's salary history to set pay decisions, the laws effectively force employers to value the position rather than the person. (Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Women working full time in the United States have historically been paid just 80 percent of what their male counterparts are paid. This gap in pay tends to follow a woman from job to job because employers base a woman's future salary on her previous, inequitable salary. Employers are blamed for perpetuating the gender pay gap and for capitalizing on cost savings in the pay disparity rather than closing the gap by paying men and women equally for the same position.
In an effort to combat this trend, many states and cities have passed salary history bans as part of broader legislative efforts to prevent employers from under-paying women. States like California, Oregon, Massachusetts and Delaware have already adopted salary history ban laws, and cities like San Francisco, San Diego, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Albany, New York City and Philadelphia have also joined the cause. Even Puerto Rico has adopted salary ban legislation. Some of these laws went into effect in 2017, while others will go into effect this year and into 2019.
Recommended For You
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
