Salary history information.

(1) Existing law prohibits an employer from relying on the salary history information of an applicant for employment as a factor in determining whether to offer an applicant employment or what salary to offer an applicant, except in specified circumstances. Existing law requires an employer, upon reasonable request, to provide the pay scale for a position to an applicant applying for employment. This bill would define "pay scale," "reasonable request," and "applicant" for purposes of these provisions. The bill would specify that these provisions do not prohibit an employer from asking about an applicant for employment's salary expectation for the position being applied for. (2) Existing law prohibits an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of the opposite sex for substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, and performed under similar working conditions, unless the employer demonstrates that one or more specific factors, reasonably applied, account for the entire wage differential. Existing law also similarly prohibits an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of another race or ethnicity for substantially similar work. Existing law prohibits prior salary, by itself, from justifying a disparity in compensation under these provisions. This bill would authorize an employer to make a compensation decision based on an employee's current salary as long as any wage differential resulting from that compensation decision is justified by one or more specified factors, including a seniority system or a merit system.