And it's illegal in California to seek a candidate's salary history or use it to determine their pay.

Connecticut as well, at least for asking you or getting your salary history from a 3rd party. Not sure that our law addresses using it to determine pay if you volunteer the info yourself.

This is pretty great! I always thought that individuals, being, well... individuals, have a systemic disadvantage in these situations and that that should change. Good on CA for trying this, let's hope it works out. :)

Yeah, if any of my friends in my field or colleagues ask me what I'm making, I have no problems telling them to help with this system disadvantage.

We should normalize being OK with telling our colleagues what we make. Our HR dept. might tell us it is private, but that's only to help the employer keep the information edge in negotiations.

> Our HR dept. might tell us it is private

And a hefty fine for doing just that was the best I could come up with. Glad someone else had a better idea that works in a less confrontational way. When I ask a prospective employer for a range and they don't simply answer frankly, I know to walk away before landing myself in a toxic environment. Of course, that assumes the privilege of being able to walk away...

It has been my experience that people from some countries share compensation info with their peers from the same country, and people from some other countries don’t share it at all. And some are in the middle: tell friends, don’t tell coworkers.

Seems like the first set of countries should have a negotiating advantage. Not sure if it does but it ought to.

So, I think that norm already exists, but not among all groups.

Do you have a source for that? I'd actually never heard this before and my google-fu is poor today.

> Assembly Bill 168 prohibits California employers from asking about an applicant’s prior salary. If an applicant asks, employers are also required to provide a pay range for the job. [0]

Google-fu tip: I just submitted that user's full comment to google, and this was the top result. It works frequently.

The bill's relevant text [1]:

> (c) An employer, upon reasonable request, shall provide the pay scale for a position to an applicant applying for employment.

[0] https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/labor/discrimination/salary-his....

[1] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtm...

Good luck getting an answer, though.

"The job posting actually covers a number of internal positions with different salary ranges" is usually what I hear when I try asking.

I guess respond with "Ok, can you email all of the specific positions and ranges?"

I wonder if that's true in MA as well. I know they passed a similar ban on asking salary history.