Effective January 1, 2018, employers in California will be prohibited from asking job applicants about their salary history, including compensation and benefits, either orally or in writing. In the event that an applicant discloses their current or past salary voluntarily and without prompting, the employer still may not rely solely on prior salary in deciding what to offer.
This salary history question prohibition aims to reduce wage inequality between men and women. The reasoning being that having that knowledge about past salaries when making hiring decisions only serves to perpetuate previous discrimination when women may have been paid less than men for doing the same work.