Public Advocate James' bill to ban salary history questions in job interviews gains support

New York City Public Advocate Letitia James’ bill to ban questions about salary history in job interviews is getting more support on Equal Pay Day. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will be joining James at a rally on the City Hall steps today. Brewer is the first of the city’s five borough presidents to publicly support the bill. “We need to take a long, hard look at a lot of business practices we’ve gotten used to, ask if they’re fair, and correct them if they’re not,” Brewer said in a statement provided exclusively to City & State. “When wage discrimination is the reality, relying on salary history helps perpetuate it,” she said.

"When wage discrimination is the reality, relying on salary history helps perpetuate it."

Proponents of the City Council bill say when employers use previous salary information, it can perpetuate the gender wage gap by relying on salaries that already reflect wage discrimination. Equal Pay Day was founded by the National Committee on Pay Equity in 1996 to highlight the disparity between men’s and women’s wages.