Legal disclaimer: This guide is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Salary history ban laws change frequently and vary significantly based on employer size, industry, and specific jurisdiction. Always consult a qualified employment attorney before changing your compensation practices.
Salary history ban laws prohibit employers from asking job candidates about their current or past compensation — including base salary, bonuses, equity, and in some jurisdictions, total compensation. The specific scope varies significantly by law, but the core prohibition is the same: you cannot use what a candidate earned before to set what you offer them now.
Most laws cover at least one of the following:
Some laws apply only to public employers (state and local government). Others apply to all employers above a certain size. A small number have no employee size threshold and apply universally.
Multi-state employers face the most complexity. A company hiring in New York City, California, and Illinois simultaneously faces three separate legal frameworks, each with different requirements, thresholds, and penalties. Remote hiring complicates this further — the relevant law is typically determined by where the employee will work, not where the company is headquartered.
Salary history bans were enacted to break the cycle of pay discrimination. The mechanism is straightforward: if your salary was historically suppressed — because you were a woman, a person of color, or entered the workforce in a lower-paying role — and employers use that history to set your next offer, the discrimination compounds with every job change.
By prohibiting employers from anchoring offers to prior compensation and requiring them to set pay based on the role's market value, these laws aim to gradually correct systemic pay disparities.
For employers, understanding the policy rationale matters because it shapes how courts interpret ambiguous situations. If your compensation process could plausibly perpetuate historical pay disparities, even unintentionally, you're at risk — even if you believe you're compliant with the letter of the law.
The following table reflects the law as of early 2026. Laws are subject to change — some states have expanded restrictions over time, and several states have pending legislation. Always verify current requirements with local counsel.
| State / Jurisdiction | Restriction Type | Applies To | Key Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Full ban | All employers | Cannot ask OR screen based on salary history. Must provide pay scale upon reasonable request. SB 1162 (2023) expanded requirements to include pay range in all job postings. |
| New York State | Full ban | All employers | Prohibits asking, screening, or relying on salary history. Employers must provide pay range for all advertised positions. NYC has had stricter local rules since 2017. |
| New York City | Full ban | 4+ employees | Among the first and strictest jurisdictions. Requires pay range disclosure in all job postings. Civil penalties up to $250,000 for willful violations. |
| Colorado | Full ban | All employers | Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (2021) requires pay range in all job postings, including remote roles where Colorado residents might apply. One of the broadest in scope. |
| Washington State | Full ban | 15+ employees | Cannot ask or require disclosure of salary history. Must include compensation range and description of benefits in all job postings. |
| Illinois | Full ban | All employers | Equal Pay Act amendment prohibits asking about or using salary history. Employers cannot screen applicants based on compensation history. |
| Massachusetts | Full ban | All employers | Effective 2018. Covers salary, benefits, and other compensation. Candidates may voluntarily disclose but employers cannot ask. |
| New Jersey | Full ban | All employers | Cannot ask about or use salary history. Employers may confirm salary history only after making a conditional offer with a compensation amount. |
| Connecticut | Full ban | All employers | Prohibits asking about or relying on salary history. Requires employers to provide the compensation range for a position upon request. |
| Maryland | Full ban | All employers | Cannot require salary history as a condition of employment. Employers must provide pay range upon request after an initial interview. |
| Nevada | Full ban | All employers | Cannot ask about or consider salary history. Must provide pay scale to applicants upon request after initial interview. |
| Oregon | Full ban | All employers | Effective 2019. Cannot ask about salary history. Employers must disclose the pay scale or wage range upon request after an offer of employment. |
| Rhode Island | Full ban | All employers | Cannot ask about or screen on salary history. Employers must provide pay range for the position upon request. |
| Vermont | Full ban | All employers | Cannot ask about salary history. Voluntary disclosure is permitted but cannot be required or used in compensation decisions. |
| Hawaii | Full ban | All employers | Cannot inquire about or consider salary history. Employers must provide pay range to applicants upon request. |
| Virginia | Public employers only | State agencies | Restriction applies to state and local government employers. Private employers are not currently restricted. |
| Pennsylvania | Public employers only | State agencies | Executive order applies to state agencies. Philadelphia has a city-level ban covering private employers with 1+ employees. |
| Michigan | Public employers only | State agencies | Executive order covering state government hiring. No state-level restriction on private employers as of early 2026. |
| Louisiana | Public employers only | State agencies | State agencies cannot ask about salary history. No restriction on private employers. |
| Texas | Public employers only | State agencies | State agencies are restricted. Austin has a city-level ordinance. No state-level restriction for private employers. |
| Chicago, IL | Full ban | All employers | City-level ordinance predates state law. Covers all employers regardless of size. Requires pay scale disclosure in job postings. |
| Philadelphia, PA | Full ban | 1+ employees | One of the first city-level bans (2017). Applies to all employers with at least one employee in the city. Covers salary, benefits, and equity. |
| Washington, DC | Full ban | All employers | Prohibits asking about or conditioning employment on salary history. Employers must state the minimum salary for the position at the start of the application process. |
| San Francisco, CA | Full ban | All employers | City-level ordinance supplements California state law. Effective 2018. Applies to both employees and contractors. |
This table reflects general provisions as of early 2026. Specific exemptions, enforcement mechanisms, and penalties vary. Consult legal counsel for your specific jurisdiction.
Salary history bans don't prevent you from gathering the compensation information you need to make good offers — they just change how you gather it. Here are compliant alternatives that most employers find more useful anyway.
Forward-looking compensation questions are permitted everywhere. "What compensation range are you targeting for your next role?" or "What total compensation would make this role worth making a move?" gives you exactly the information you need to structure an offer — without the legal exposure of salary history questions, and without anchoring to a potentially discriminatory past.
In many jurisdictions this is now required, but even where it isn't, proactive range disclosure has practical advantages: it filters out candidates whose expectations are far outside your range before you invest in the full process, and it signals organizational transparency that candidates increasingly value.
A confidential pre-offer assessment, completed by the candidate, can surface compensation targets, equity sensitivity, and other financial considerations in a way that is forward-looking, voluntary, and legally sound. The candidate shares what matters to them — forward-looking targets, priorities, and cost-to-move context — and you receive structured data to inform the offer. Current compensation fields are optional and excluded from employer-facing results.
This approach is particularly powerful because it captures information that salary history questions couldn't: what the candidate needs to make the move work, what their unvested equity situation looks like, and how much weight they give each compensation component. That's more useful for building the right offer than knowing what they currently earn.
In many jurisdictions, if a candidate voluntarily discloses their salary history, you still cannot use it to set their compensation. Receiving the information is not the legal problem; using it is. Train your hiring managers to redirect voluntarily-disclosed salary information and document that compensation decisions were made based on role requirements and market data, not the candidate's history.
The practical upside: The shift away from salary history questions has pushed hiring teams toward better practices. Forward-looking compensation conversations — focused on what the candidate needs to make the move, not what they currently earn — produce better information and better offers. Teams that embraced this shift early generally report that their offer acceptance rates improved.
OfferAlign's scoring engine is built around forward-looking compensation intelligence — what a candidate needs to make the move, not what they currently earn. That distinction is the key compliance principle: the information that drives the alignment score and offer recommendations is entirely prospective.
Here's how the assessment is structured:
This structure means that even where candidates voluntarily share current compensation context, the employer's offer decisions are driven by the candidate's stated targets — not their history. That's the compliance principle salary history ban laws are designed to enforce.
Important nuance: OfferAlign's design minimizes compliance risk, but it does not eliminate it entirely if your team uses voluntarily disclosed information inappropriately. Train hiring managers that optional candidate disclosures in the assessment record are not to be used as anchors for compensation decisions. Consult employment counsel for your specific jurisdictions.
Always verify: Even with compliant tools, your internal processes matter. If hiring managers are asking salary history questions verbally during interviews — even informally — you have legal exposure regardless of what tools you use. Document your process and consult counsel if you have questions.
OfferAlign's forward-looking candidate assessments give you everything you need to build the right offer — with scoring built entirely on forward-looking targets. Works across every industry and jurisdiction.
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