Massachusetts has become the first major jurisdiction in the country to bar employers from using an applicant’s salary history or requirements as a selection criterion, or even asking about prior salary, until after a job offer has been extended and compensation has been “negotiated.”
The salary inquiry bar provision is contained in an overhaul of the state’s equal pay law, which was approved unanimously by the state legislature and signed into law by Republican Governor Charlie Baker on August 1, 2016. The new law, including the ban on prior salary inquiries, goes into effect July 1, 2018.
The new legislation also strengthens existing state law in several other significant ways, including to bar discrimination based on “comparable work” — defined to mean work that is “substantially similar in content,” requires “substantially similar skill, effort and responsibility,” and is performed under “similar working conditions.”
Members of the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) can read more here.