Amazon bans salary history questions during interviews: Why HR should care?
If your interview process still involves asking questions about candidates’ previous salary history, you may want to consider making some changes to that process. Article analyzing the ban and its reasons, by Jared Bilski.
If your interview process still involves asking questions about candidates’ previous salary history, you may want to consider making some changes to that process.
Amazon just announced an internal ban against asking job applicants about their previous salary history, joining other tech giants like Facebook and Cisco.
The ban, which was posted in its entirety on BuzzFeed News, states that hiring managers and recruiters can no longer:
“directly or indirectly ask candidates about their current or prior base pay, bonus, equity compensation, variable pay, or benefits.”
In addition, managers and recruiters can’t:
“use salary history information as a factor in determining whether or not to offer employment and what compensation to offer a candidate.”
May not be optional soon
Smaller companies may be asking, “We don’t compete with Amazon, so why should we care what they’re doing?”
There are several reasons why employers of all stripes should care.
For one thing, when giants such as Amazon and Facebook make major HR-related changes, those changes often wind up becoming trends embraced by the rest of corporate America.
Plus, soon employers may not have a say on the matter. A number of states and cities have enacted specific laws that prohibit salary history inquiries during the job-application process.
California, Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, New York City, Philadelphia, Puerto Rico and San Francisco have such laws on the books. Plus, Idaho, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia are considering similar legislation.