Do Salary History Bans Mitigate Discriminatory Hiring Practices?
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-29-2025
ISSN
0023-6586
Publisher
Wolters Klumer
Language
en-US
Abstract
Many states and localities have adopted salary history bans in recent years. The goal of these bans is to stop the use of a worker's past salary to help formulate a starting salary for that worker at a new workplace. Advocates of the bans strive to diminish gender discrimination in the workplace and in particular to reduce the gender pay gap. The theory behind the ban is that on average women have a weaker salary history than men in part because of discrimination, and the use of salary history at a new employer perpetuates the effect of earlier discrimination. A growing body of empirical evidence supports the view that salary history bans work. Newly hired women in jurisdictions that implement a ban earn significantly more than newly hired women in other jurisdictions. Importantly, but less noticed, there is also evidence that salary history bans help to close the racial pay gap as well. We conclude with a discussion of the policy implications we draw from research on salary history bans.
Recommended Citation
James Bessen, Erich Denk, Chen Meng & Michael J. Meurer,
Do Salary History Bans Mitigate Discriminatory Hiring Practices?
,
76
Labor Law Journal
103
(2025).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/4117
