Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of prohibiting employers from requesting salary history from new employees in an effort to help tackle the replication of pay gaps between organisations.

There is growing evidence to show that, when pay is negotiable, asking applicants to disclose previous salary information increases the risk that historic disparities will be replicated. This is also the case when employers fail to provide clear salary information within their job adverts.

Both practices, when taken together, can limit an applicant’s ability to understand the value of their skills, and prevent them from negotiating on a level playing field. This can be particularly detrimental to those applicants who have been historically paid less, and who may not benefit from the informal sharing of pay information; ultimately putting them at a disadvantage during salary negotiations.