The Salary Question

Last fall, three US legislators introduced a bill that would have prohibited employers from asking candidates about their salary history. With everything that has happened in American politics since then, this issue has probably slipped off the list, but it raises an interesting question: why do you ask candidates about their salary history?

The obvious answer is, “Because it tells us how much we have to pay this person in order to get them.” But should that really be a key factor in setting the salary? Shouldn’t the salary be based on the business value you expect the role to create? One of the reasons new laws are being considered is that this philosophy — paying someone based on what they got paid before — perpetuates historically lower salaries for certain groups. Get out of the trap of thinking someone should be paid only in increments of what they have been paid before; set the salary based on the job and the skills the candidate brings, and if they don’t want to work for that salary, they will tell you.

Some people ask about salary history in order to weed out jobseekers who seem to be outside the salary range, but that can be a mistake. A candidate’s previous salary merely offers a small hint about their goals, and it may be misleading. Perhaps they have a low salary in their current position because they pursued something they were passionate about, and traded off a higher salary in order to get increased job satisfaction. Maybe they have a high salary now but are willing to take a lower one to shift into another career field or take on less responsibility at work due to increased responsibilities at home. There’s no point in assuming their current salary is either a floor or a ceiling, so why bother asking?

If you ARE going to continue asking the question, then be ready to be equally transparent. If you think it’s a fair to ask a candidate “What are you making in your current job?,” then it’s equally fair for the candidate to ask, “How much is the person currently in this role making?” Never ask questions if you are not ready to answer questions, especially as younger people entering the workforce seem more inclined to question things. For that matter, if you want to weed people out based on how much they are looking for, maybe just include a salary range in the job announcement, along with the criteria that will determine the ultimate salary. Anyone who’s not happy with a salary that falls anyplace in that range should not even bother applying.

When you start seeing new laws about something, it’s a sign that it has been so abused that it is finally being controlled. Employers have gotten away with posing the salary history question and using the answer behind closed doors, but by assuming they had all the power they created an incentive for others to regulate them. Wouldn’t it be better to simply drop this question (or be prepared to show equal transparency if you are still going to ask it) rather than to have the government tell you what you can and cannot say in an interview?