Philadelphia Salary History Ban Upheld

On February 6, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ended a three-year battle over Philadelphia's wage equity bill.  The precedential decision, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, et al. v. City of Philadelphia, et al., upheld the city’s 2017 law that prohibits employers with one or more employees in the city from asking job applicants about their salary histories, conditioning employment or consideration for employment on the disclosure of wage history, retaliating against an applicant for failing to disclose wage history, or relying on wage history to determine future compensation. Violation of the law can lead to both civil monetary penalties and up to 90 days in jail.

This law validates that prospective employees should be paid based upon the duties and responsibilities of the job for which they are interviewing, not because of the jobs in their past.  Human Resources departments rely upon industry surveys and public data to determine market salary ranges for each role. 

Employers: Employers should revise their job applications or other employment recruiting/hiring forms to remove questions about salary history.  Interviews with job applicants should avoid questions about their past salary/earnings.

Employees:  When interviewing, and if asked about salary expectations, we recommend a response like this: “I would expect to be paid commensurate with the duties and responsibilities of this role.  What is the salary range for this position?”