November 2022
DOJ Gender Equality Network Calls on OPM To Ban Salary History in Hiring
In a recent letter to the director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), a group of U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) workers urge federal leaders to ban salary history questions from the hiring process, saying these types of queries further existing pay gaps.
The OPM noted in its latest progress report that the agency has completed a draft of proposed guidelines that address the use of salary history and pay-setting processes for federal employees, and is setting a goal of Sept. 30, 2023 to issue regulations designed to close gender and racial pay gaps in the federal government.
The DOJ Gender Equality Network (DOJ GEN), a 1,250-member coalition of DOJ employees, wrote in its Nov. 15 letter to OPM Director Kiran Ahuja that they were “encouraged” to see that the OPM plans to issue such regulations, and expressed belief that such a directive “carries the potential to move agencies closer to pay equity.”
Banning the solicitation of salary history is one key step toward eliminating pay gaps, the group wrote, referring to past comments from Vice President Kamala Harris that underscore the ways in which salary-related questions can help create gender pay disparities.
“Requiring applicants to share their salary history … can mean inequitable pay from a previous job will follow [women] to their current job, and so on and so on,” Harris said at a March 2022 event marking Equal Pay Day 2022.
Shrinking the Federal Salary Gap
As the DOJ GEN letter points out, a number of states and localities have already implemented bans that prohibit employers from soliciting information related to salary history as part of hiring practices.
In California, for example, employers are not permitted to seek candidates’ pay history. Even if an employer already has that information or an applicant volunteers it, it still cannot be used in determining a new hire’s pay. The law also obliges employers to provide job applicants with pay scale information upon request.
And, in Connecticut, any individual, corporation, limited liability company, firm, partnership, voluntary association, joint stock association, the state and any political subdivision thereof, and any public corporation within the state is forbidden from asking questions about salary history. Connecticut employers may not ask about an applicant’s pay history unless it was voluntarily disclosed.
On a federal level, however, agencies can still consider a new hire’s prior salary when setting pay. Any forthcoming OPM regulations “should ban not only agencies’ solicitation of salary history, but also their reliance on it to set pay—regardless of how an agency acquires the information,” according to the DOJ GEN letter.
As the Federal Times’ Molly Weisner recently wrote, “there has been some discussion by the Biden administration of a ban on the practice [of inquiring about job applicants’ salary history], which DOJ GEN says is critical, given that women employed by the executive branch still make about 6% less than their male colleagues—a disparity that sharpens especially for minority women.”
The DOJ GEN’s recent letter reasons that instituting a comprehensive ban on the solicitation and consideration of applicants’ salary history would ultimately help employees and the federal government alike.
“Taking meaningful steps to shrink salary gaps will improve agencies’ ability to recruit and retain top talent, advance compliance with the Administration’s DEIA mandates and reduce costly legal challenges to salary disparities under the Equal Pay Act and other civil rights laws.
“Although some may argue that use of salary history can be an advantageous negotiating tool for women and people of color who come from high-paying jobs, the overall harmful impact it has on historically underpaid groups outweighs any limited individual employee gains,” the group wrote.
“We all want past pay gaps to stop at the federal government,” Stacey Young, president of DOJ GEN, told Federal Times.
“To do that, OPM should do more than ban agencies from simply soliciting salary history. The office has to ban agencies from using salary history, regardless of how it’s acquired. Unless it does, the federal government will perpetuate past pay inequities that disproportionately harm women and people of color.”
22 November 2022
Category
HR News Article