Revision: Dec. 27, 2018, 9:45 a.m.
HB 211 - AS INTRODUCED
2019 SESSION
19-0242
04/01
HOUSE BILL 211
AN ACT relative to inquiries by prospective employers concerning salary history.
SPONSORS: Rep. J. Schmidt, Hills. 28; Rep. Klee, Hills. 30
COMMITTEE: Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services
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ANALYSIS
This bill prohibits an employer from requiring a prospective employee to disclose his or her salary history prior to an offer of employment.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
19-0242
04/01
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nineteen
AN ACT relative to inquiries by prospective employers concerning salary history.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Legislative Findings and Purpose. The general court finds that:
I. Despite federal and state laws that ban discrimination in pay in both the public and private sectors, wage differentials persist between women and men and between minorities and non-minorities in the same jobs, and in jobs that require equivalent composites of skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions.
II. The existence of such wage differentials depresses wages and living standards; reduces family incomes, contributing to higher poverty rates experienced by female-headed and minority households; prevents the maximum utilization of available labor resources; tends to cause labor disputes, thereby burdening and obstructing commerce; and constitutes an unfair method of competition.
III. The practice of an employer asking a prospective employee for his or her salary history tends to perpetuate gaps in pay that disproportionately impact females and people of color.
IV. There is no need for employers to know a prospective employee's salary history in order to negotiate a fair wage; in fact, fairness depends on the job and the skills that the employee brings to the position, and not at all on salary history.
V. Eliminating discrimination in compensation based on sex, race, or national origin would have many positive effects, including providing a solution to problems in the economy created by discriminatory wage differentials; reducing the number of working women and people of color who earn low wages, thereby lowering their incidence of poverty during normal working years and in retirement; and promoting stable families by raising family incomes.
VI. It is the purpose of this act to help correct wage discrimination based on sex, race, or national origin.
2 New Section; Discrimination in the Workplace; Salary History. Amend RSA 275 by inserting after section 41-d the following new section:
275:41-e Salary History.
I. No employer shall inquire about a prospective employee's wage or salary history before an offer of employment with compensation has been negotiated and made to the prospective employee, unless a prospective employee has voluntarily disclosed such information.
II. No employer shall use an employee's prior wage and salary history as a defense to any action alleging wage or salary discrimination under state law.
3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.