The federal government, the largest US employer, wants to ban questions about salary history for potential employees at interview stages to help reduce gender discrimination among employees.
The new regulation will apply to new federal employees on the general schedule pay system, the prevailing rate pay system, the administrative appeals judge pay system, and the administrative law judge pay system.
According to Forbes report on the gender pay gap (opens in new tab)women earn an average of 17% less than men in 2022, meaning women earn 82 cents for every dollar a man makes.
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Because federal pay is more transparent than in the private sector, we can see how the gender pay gap affects the federal government’s civilian workforce. And in 2022, although the pay gap persisted, it was lower than for workers in the rest of the US, with A difference of 5.6%. (opens in new tab).
The new proposed ordinance was published by US Office of Personnel Management (opens in new tab) (OPM) — which is responsible for about 2.2 million federal employees. The change would mean that federal agencies would not be allowed to use an applicant’s previous or current salary to determine pay in interviews for most federal jobs.
Currently, 30 countries have banned salary history according to Paycor (opens in new tab)and if the federal government approves this change, it is likely to help further reduce the gender pay gap. It also ties into Biden’s 2021 executive order (opens in new tab) to act on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the American workforce.
How will the salary history ban work?
When a candidate applies for a federal government job, salary bands will play a role in highlighting a job’s pay range, salary increases, and promotions.
Before the proposal is finalized, it will go through a 30-day public comment period. Once in full swing, the change will affect about 1.5 million federal employees who work full-time, as well as those in non-seasonal positions.
Once the new rule goes into effect, hiring managers will still be able to look at an applicant’s qualifications and experience and determine the initial salary offer from that, said Rob Shriver, OPM’s deputy director. Axios (opens in new tab).
While the proposed change is good news, the number of women in low-wage jobs will still be a contributing factor to the gender pay gap, but, says OPM Director Kiran Ahuja, “these proposed regulations are an important step forward that will help make the federal government a national leader in pay equity.”