Why the U.S. government, the country’s largest employer, wants to ban the salary history question

The federal government, the largest employer in the U.S., wants to make the salary history question a thing of the past.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, introduced a proposal this week that would bar hiring managers from asking candidates about their salary history, and it could impact 1.5 million roles, Axios reports.

Pay equity advocates say the salary history question perpetuates cycles of marginalized workers, namely women and people of color, being underpaid by basing their new pay on previous earnings, which could be artificially low due to discrimination.

On average, women in the U.S. are paid 84 cents for every dollar paid to a man, and the gap widens for many women of color.

The pay for government jobs tends to be more transparent than private-sector roles. Agencies are required by law to post the starting pay on job announcements, and some government job boards require the full salary range be listed on openings. There’s generally also a more structured timeline and process for raises and promotions compared to jobs in the private sector.

But a gender pay gap still exists, the OPM reports, with women in the federal workforce earning an average of 94 cents for every dollar paid to a man, or a 6% difference. The gap widens for women of color — 15% for Black women in comparison to what white men are paid, and 27% for Native women.

Agency officials hope to “root out some of the historical pay inequities that are more prevalent outside of federal government,” Rob Shriver, deputy director of OPM, told Axios. “We don’t want to be bringing those into the federal government.”

Twenty-one states and 22 localities already have laws that prohibit employers from asking about a candidate’s salary history, and more could be on the way, especially if efforts at the federal level move forward.

Research shows women earn more when they’re not required to disclose their previous pay in job interviews. One