Full Citation
Title: Why Salary History Bans Matter To Securing Equal Pay
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2021
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Abstract: Employers' reliance on salary history in hiring and compensation decisions is a textbook example of structural bias. While the common practice of asking a job applicant about their prior salary may seem innocuous on the surface, it can have unintended, harmful consequences, including barring qualified candidates from job opportunities and systematically relegating women and workers of color-particularly women of color-to lower pay that may have been set lower because of discrimination. Many employers use salary history as a metric to screen, evaluate, or compare applicants; set compensation; or negotiate salaries. However, the practice relies on false assumptions and biases about the relationships among salary, worker value, and market value, rendering it ineffective as well as harmful. In addition to perpetuating wage disparities, reliance on prior salary is unnecessary given other available, less bias-informed factors that employers could use to gauge a candidate's value. Moreover, salary history can provide a convenient rationale for employers who seek to justify pay disparities or depress wages. Limiting employer reliance on salary history in hiring and compensation decisions would help eliminate a form of structural bias and is therefore an important component of a broader, comprehensive effort to narrow the gender wage gap and secure equal pay for working women. This issue brief details the connections among salary history, equal pay, and the gender wage gap; examines the legislative landscape at the local, state, and federal levels; and recommends the Paycheck Fairness Act as a federal policy solution.
Url: https://cdn.americanprogress.org/content/uploads/2021/03/23122629/Securing-Equal-Pay.pdf
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Authors: Bleiweis, Robin
Publisher: Center for American Progress
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Race and Ethnicity
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