Salary History and Gender Are Antiquated Data Points for Salary Negotiations

Last year, with the stroke of a pen, Governor Charlie Baker made Massachusetts the first state in the nation to ban HR departments from asking for salary history from candidates. The law, which goes into effect on July 1, 2018, also protects employees from being fired if they have open discussions with colleagues about salary. Other governments at the state and city level are following suit, including Philadelphia, California, and New York. What some herald these as government righting a wrong in standard HR practices that would otherwise continue to go unresolved, others fear the bills don’t go far enough; many believe the law is going too far.