Westchester NY Salary History Ban

June 7th, 2018 | Sterling

On April 9, 2018 Westchester County Executive George Latimer signed legislation which will prohibit employers in Westchester County from inquiring about an applicant’s salary or utilizing salary history to determine what salary to offer an applicant.  The new law will take effect on July 9th, 2018  Please see below for a summary of this new bill.

The law will make it an unlawful practice for an employer, labor organization or employment agency to do the following:

• Rely on the wage history of a prospective employee from any current or former employer of the individual in determining the wages of such individual
• Orally or in writing, request or require as a condition for being interviewed or as a condition of continuing to be considered for an offer of employment, or as a condition of employment that a prospective employee disclose information about the employee’s own wages from any current or former employer
• Orally or in writing, seek from any current or former employer the previous wages of any prospective employee
• Retaliate or refuse to hire an employee based on prior wage or salary history or any act that is prohibited by this legislation.

An employer is allowed to rely on prior wage history when it is voluntarily provided by a perspective employee to support a wage higher than the wage being offered by the employer.  The law also allows an employer to seek to confirm prior wage information after an offer of employment when the prospective employee responds to the offer with prior wage information to support a wage that is higher than being offered by the employer. The employer must obtain written authorization from the employee prior to seeking this information.

The information contained herein is for informational purposes only. Clients are encouraged to consult with their legal counsel on the impact of this new law. Sterling is not a law firm, and none of the information contained in this notice is intended as legal advice.

This and other important legislative updates can be found on the Sterling website, https://www.sterlingcheck.com/resources/compliance-updates/

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