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Salary History Ordinance

Prohibits employers from asking applicants about their current or past salary or disclosing a current or former employee's salary history without the employee's authorization unless the salary history is publicly available.

The Consideration of Salary History Ordinance bans employers, including City contractors and subcontractors, from considering current or past salary of an applicant in determining whether to hire the applicant or what salary to offer the applicant.

The ordinance also prohibits employers from (1) asking applicants about their current or past salary or (2) disclosing a current or former employee’s salary history without that employee’s authorization unless the salary history is publicly available.

Note that the State of California has also passed legislation prohibiting employers from asking applicants about their current or past salary. The statewide law took effect on January 1, 2018. See the text of AB-168.