INDIANA – Potential employers can ask you about your salary history to help decide what you should be paid, if you get the job. State Rep. Sue Errington (D-Muncie), says she’s introducing a bill that would keep employers from being able to ask that question.

Errington said that when women or minorities are asked that question, if they were paid less than they should have been for the job, they might not be offered a fair wage if they are hired, and that means they suffer perpetual discrimination.

“When women are paid less than their male counterparts, they don’t just suffer lost wages – often, contributions to retirement and other workplace benefits are tied to salary – meaning women also miss out here, too,” she said. “In Indiana, nearly two million women are part of our labor force. If we value Hoosier women, we should do all we can to eradicate pay discrimination and ensure that people are paid appropriately for their skills and contributions.”

Errington said she introduced a similar bill last year, but that it did not get a hearing. She said that the pandemic may give lawmakers reason to rethink some laws about employment.

“There’s a lot of things that will be different when we go back to work,” she said. “This is the time when we could make some changes and this would be a change that could even the playing field for women and minorities.”

Errington said other implications to continue allowing the question to be asked are that people end up pricing themselves out of a job, even if they could work cheaper, simply because the potential employer knows what they made at their last job, and she points to studies that show that some people do not know if they are being discriminated against if they don’t discuss salaries with colleagues.

Errington said she was surprised to find out last year, how many Hoosier women claim they had been victims of wage discrimination.

 

Image by Jerry Nettik from Pixabay