City may ban salary history questions
Measure could help address gender wage gap
Milwaukee is considering a measure to remove questions about salary history from city job applications as a way to help shrink the gender wage gap.
Milwaukee would join other cities that are trying to address wage disparities, under the measure proposed by Ald. Tony Zielinski.
“I feel it’s important for the City of Milwaukee to help address pay inequity,” said Zielinski. “I think that by removing salary history, we’ll be a step closer to address inequity.”
On Wednesday, the Personnel and Finance Committee passed the resolution, sending it to the full Common Council.
Women earn about 82% of what men make for comparable hours, the Pew Research Center reported in April.
Since employers typically determine a new hire’s starting salary on the basis of previous compensation, they may unwittingly perpetuate long-standing income disparities.
“Women and minorities traditionally tend to get lower wages,” said Maria Monteagudo, Milwaukee’s director of employee relations.
“The offer should be made based on what the labor market pays for the value of the position and for the skill set and the experience.”
The resolution comes a little more than a month after Wisconsin lawmakers, following in the footsteps of Michigan, passed legislation that forbade statewide local governments from enacting or enforcing an ordinance “prohibiting an employer from soliciting information regarding the salary history of prospective employees.” Gov. Scott Walker signed the act into law on April 16.
City Clerk Jim Owczarski said Milwaukee’s resolution does not violate state law because the city is not forcing private employers to ban salary history
questions, but rather is simply modifying its own policies.
Wisconsin and Michigan remain the exception rather than the rule. The list of states that have enacted statewide bans of salary history questions is lengthy (and has only grown longer since Massachusetts started the trend last August): California, Washington, Oregon, Delaware, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, New York and Puerto Rico.
Meanwhile, cities like New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco have gone a step further than Milwaukee and banned employers citywide from asking about applicants’ salary history.
Some committee members expressed reservations about the resolution.
Ald. Milele A. Coggs requested that a study be done on whether pay inequity between men and women exists in Milwaukee, stressing the importance of understanding “how big an issue it is before we decide on what our solution should be.”
Coggs also voiced concern that the resolution might inadvertently hurt the the people it aims to support, as employer knowledge of salary history sometimes helps women in landing high-paying entry-level positions.
“I’m trying to think about the practical impact, for real, on at least some of the women that we’re trying to make equity for,” she said.
Coggs was the only alderman to abstain from voting on the resolution, which passed with no dissenting votes.
Zielinski emphasized that the resolution is a single step toward solving a complex problem.
“We’re not maintaining that this is a magic pill and overnight pay inequity will be automatically addressed with this one initiative,” said Zielinski.
“This pay equity issue, just like with any other issue, be it employment, be it public safety, there’s no one magic pill that’s gonna solve the whole problem.
“If we’re going to be successful on addressing issues like pay inequity, public safety, whatever it may be, it’s going to take a multitude and series of initiatives.”