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My Salary?? Sorry, it's none of your business

I would like to advocate for 'salary-history privacy', which is the number 1 question every employer is keen to understand. Each interview, irrespective of the position/level demands to know the current salary of the individual who is keen on a job change

I fail to understand why is it given critical importance. What rights does an employer have to know the current salary status of an applicant before he could convert to an employee of the hiring firm. Every company has a strict policy towards their employees who discuss their compensation plan with each other. They discourage employees from sharing their salary information amongst their own employees. So why this unfair term while just interviewing an new applicant?


Your past salaries are nobody's business but yours. Your compensation rate at previous jobs should play no part in the process of deciding whether to interview you, whether to hire you or how much to pay you.

Employers have no reason to require a job-seeker to give up their salary history except for one: they would get that information in order to pay the new employee less than they might if they had no idea what the employee had earned elsewhere.

The state of Massachusetts recently passed a bill aimed at correcting gender-based pay inequality.

A new bill preventing employers from requiring salary histories from job applicants is the best thing that has ever happened in the Recruitment Vertical in
Massachusetts

Research has shown that not only do women often get paid less than men do for performing the same or similar work, but also that when a woman starts out behind the curve she will have a hard time catching up over time -- in large part because each new employer will pay her only a little more than she was earning at her last job.

How do these employers know what a job applicant was earning before? Easy! They make your past salaries a mandatory field on their job application form. You can't get through their careers portal without filling in your salary details for every job you've held!

Requesting or requiring salary history from a job-seeker is unprofessional, unethical and bad business. It's an invasion of privacy and a form of economic bullying and I am thrilled to see Massachusetts abolishing the practice.

When we all learn to make hiring and compensation decisions without the "inside information" of a candidate's past salaries, we will all be better at our jobs! We will be a better employer, a better recruiter & a better hiring manager.

Every company has a budget aligned to the new position which is created. Why don't an employer just stick to the budget rather than probing on an applicants current salary. Why would employers want to use an applicants current salary as a gauge meter.

Let's hope similar protocols would be initiated in India which is the most vibrant & cherishing nation of all.

ToGether, Let's Build Our Indian Dream and Weave it in a Fantastic Way

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