Connecticut Bans Asking About Salary History

Effective January1, 2019 Connecticut-based employers cannot ask about a prospective employee’s salary or compensation history.

Key features are:

It is an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer to ask about an applicant’s compensation history, including his or her prior salary, benefits, or other compensation EXCEPT if

• A candidate voluntarily discloses compensation history, the hiring company may ask further.

• Employers may ask about compensation history if a state or federal law requires or specifically authorizes it to verify such information.

A company also may ask about components of a candidate’s compensation structure like whether the employee received equity, profit participation, deferred compensation, etc., as long as the employer does not ask about the value.

The law does not stop employers from informing candidates about the proposed or anticipated compensation range of the job being hired for.

The law also does not stop employers from having conversations with candidates about their compensation expectations.

Remedies for violations of the law are include damages, attorney’s fees and costs, equitable relief, and punitive damages.

NOTE: This law is one of a number of such laws being passed in various jurisdictions. Litigation sorting out what the laws mean and deciding whether they are constitutional are in process. A court has, for instance, ruled that a similar law in Philadelphia was unconstitutional insofar as it forbade employers from asking about salary history. The provisions of that law which made it illegal for an employer to use salary history were upheld.