More than twenty states and dozens of cities now ban employers from asking what you currently earn, including California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey, and Colorado. The logic is simple: pricing people off their last salary imports every past inequity into the new job.
Practically, this changes the opening of every negotiation. Where bans apply, “What do you make now?” is a question the recruiter is not allowed to ask, and if it comes anyway, you can decline gracefully: “I keep that confidential, but I’m happy to talk about my expectations for this role.” No further explanation is owed.
Note what the bans do not cover. You can always volunteer your salary, though it is rarely in your interest. Employers can still ask your expectations, so the anchoring question just changed costumes, and the answer is the same researched range it always should have been. And several of the same laws now force the other direction: pay transparency rules in states like Colorado, California, New York, and Washington require ranges in job postings, which hands you the employer’s number before you name yours.
The strategy that works under every regime: never argue from your history, argue from the market. Know the median and the realistic range for the title, state, and experience level with our free What Am I Worth? tool, and your old paycheck becomes exactly what the law intends it to be, which is nobody’s business.
Reviewed by Michael Dennis Graham
Michael Dennis Graham is the founder of Grahall, LLC, an executive compensation consulting firm, and the author of numerous books on compensation and total rewards strategy. He has advised boards and management teams on pay design and has served as an expert on compensation matters. Articles on WePayFairly are prepared by our editorial team and reviewed for accuracy and methodology.
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