The Debate: Should bosses be banned from asking for salary history?

The EHRC wants to ban employers from asking prospective employees to disclose their salaries. We hear the case for and against in today s Debate YES: What you earned yesterday should not determine what you are worth today What you earned yesterday should not determine what you are worth today. I cannot think of a justifiable reason why someone’s previous pay would be relevant to a new employer. The employer is only learning what someone previously accepted, not an objective valuation of their skills or experience. This particularly harms women. Our earnings are already shaped by the gender pay gap, time out or reduced hours for caring, poor workplace practices and pay discrimination. Basing a new salary on what a woman was paid before means that inequality follows women from job to job. Employers are often reluctant to publish pay in job adverts, while expecting applicants to disclose what they earned before. Candidates are then asked to negotiate from that position –