On July 10, 2019, New York enacted a new law that prohibits all employers in the state from asking job applicants and employees about their past salaries or wages.
Specifically, effective Jan. 6, 2020, employers cannot:
- Rely on an applicant’s wage or salary history to determine whether to offer a job to, or how much to pay, the applicant;
- Seek, request or require a wage or salary history from an applicant or employee as a condition of, or consideration for, employment;
- Retaliate against or refuse to interview, hire, promote or otherwise employ an individual based on his or her past wage or salary or because he or she has either refused to provide past wage or salary information or filed a complaint with the New York Department of Labor against the employer; or
- Seek, request or require a wage or salary history from the applicant’s current or former employer.
An employer may confirm an individual’s wage or salary history if:
- An offer of employment for a specified compensation amount has been made to the individual; and
- The individual responded to the offer by providing prior pay information to support a higher compensation amount.