Bank of America (BoA) sent a memo recently to its employees stating that all employees will be prohibited from asking job candidates about their prior salary starting March 2018. Bank of America deemed this policy as another step toward bridging the gender wage gap. This change was a response to the shareholder wage gap study that BoA recently conducted, in which female workers made 99 percent salary of their male counterparts.
Many states across the United States - including Massachusetts, California, and Maryland - have enacted legislation that in some way prohibits using or enquiring about prior salary in hiring practices. With states and localities adopting new pay laws that are similar in nature but with nuanced differences in practical implications, employers are left with two choices – 1) make amendments on a state-by-state or city-by-city basis, or 2) adopt a proactive pay policy that potentially covers all laws.
As a result, a growing number of employers who have locations spread across the world are going well beyond the boundaries of laws and adopting company-wide policies to proactively address gender-based pay disparity issues. Amazon, Wells Fargo, Google, Facebook, and American Express are a few others that have implemented similar company-wide policies.
By Joanna Colosimo, Director of EEO Compliance, and Vinaya Sakpal, Associate Consultant, at DCI Consulting