Thursday, August 4, 2016

Illegal in Massachusetts: Asking Your Salary in a Job Interview

NYT:   In a groundbreaking effort to close the wage gap between men and women, Massachusetts has become the first state to bar employers from asking about applicants’ salaries before offering them a job.

The new law will require hiring managers to state a compensation figure upfront — based on what an applicant’s worth is to the company, rather than on what he or she made in a previous position.

The bipartisan legislation, signed into law on Monday by Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, is being pushed as a model for other states, as the issue of men historically outearning women who do the same job has leapt onto the national political scene. (read the whole thing)

Nothing on the article about possible unintended consequences.

36 comments:

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Is there something in the water in Massachusetts?

edutcher said...

It's called Democrats.

I guess Titus will be moving to a less fab state since he can't be sure of living in the style to which he'd like to become accustomed

Amartel said...

Brought to you by the people who keep insisting that a $15/hour minimum wage and rent control are things that are helpful to poor people. Now they're going to outlaw salary negotiation because chicks (according to them, don't yell at me) are just not up to the task so now the government's going to do it for them and the company's going to pay for it. YOU get less money, and YOU get less money, and YOU get less money, and YOU'RE merit will not be compensated, and YOU won't be hired because now we have to pay for another in-house government stooge to oversee ourselves.
Bonus: We have to all pretend that women can't negotiate.
P.S. We must elect Hillary Clinton.

To quote George Carlin, "'Bipartisan' usually means that a larger than usual deception is being carried out."

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Well this is pretty stupid and obviously made by people who have never run a company or been involved in hiring anyone.

Your "worth" to the company is based on your skills, experience, time in the industry or occupation, education, personal factors, likeability, work ethic, likelihood of remaining with the company, age, presentation of self and interest in the field......among other things.

None of those are a guarantee that the man and woman have equal "worth". In fact, probably the opposite. A woman is less likely to have the experience and more likely to leave the company or position.

Of course, they don't mean hire on the applicant's worth or skills. They just want to make all the positions pay the same. So....the employer decides to pay the least amount he can because IF he has to hire the woman, then he won't be out so much to compensate for her lack of skills, bad attitude and loss of productivity when she decides to quit, get pregnant, get married or just needs to take off time to go to a school play or something.

Gah!!!

Methadras said...

I know the company I work at there are people who make more money and there are people who make less money than I do. i also know the value I ultimately bring to my company and the incentives, perks, and benefits that I get for it. I neither care what anyone else makes and I respect that they don't either. That's the way it should be, but when leftists inject envy and jealousy from their ideology onto what people do to create a sense of entitlement so that it creates solidarity for their cause, then the outcomes like this is what we end up with.

I had the pleasure of meeting this notary public who brought over my refi papers lasts night who is originally from soviet era Poland and the stories she told me would curl your fucking toes about soviet bloc style governance. Wow. A total eye opener. She got there at 7 and didn't leave until almost midnight. Amazing to talk to her. She sees what's going on now and ran through some interesting parallels.

The Dude said...

Something in the water? You mean other than Teddy's Oldsmobile?

ndspinelli said...

I was in Massachusetts last week. It is a pretty state but fucked up. When people think of these New England states they think of nice cities and towns. And, there are. But, many small and mid sized cities have turned into shitholes. I drove through a town, North Adams, MA. It's an old factory mill town. I have not been there since the 60's. Of course, all the factories are abandoned. The downtown looks like it has some tourist traffic but it's not much of a business community. Same w/ towns like Pittsfield, Springfield, Worcester, all run down and depressing. The same w/ CT., RI, VT, NH and Maine. I grew up back there and it sucks to see the decline. This is why Trump may win.

windbag said...

Every new hire is offered minimum wage, since the employer has no other criteria by which to assess their value. The new employee will, of course, indignantly reply, "But I made $XX,XXX at my last job." Now, the employer can counter.

Leland said...

So a few years back, I switched industries from one that was in the government sector and paid poorly to an industrial concern that paid extremely well. Because of my previous salary, I was brought in a pay grade lower than the job I applied and obtained. That made me cheap.

This past year, the company has laid of several thousand employees. I was never in danger, because I performed at a higher level at a lower pay. Several people hired with me were let go, but they had been in the industry before making better wages. Even at the lower pay grade, I was making more than my previous job.

Chip Ahoy said...

This is bad.

Like Kurt Vonnegut. Harrison Bergeron.

I pull this all the time outside. A family with children will pass me on the sidewalk and I yell at them as they pass, "HEY, NO FAIR PASSING ME UP. Because I know each one them individually is thinking about overtaking me, whatever it is they are thinking about it, they're thinking about that. I get 'em all at once.

The Australian guy zipped way ahead of me in the store, zig-zagging his pathway, and joking I go, "You outpaced me with your superior mobility." And he got all apologetic. Embarrassingly apologetic. And it was a joke.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

They were going to do the big modern art museum in North Adams in the old mills, but Spain offered a better deal and they got that titanium Gerry building paid for by the Spanish Government (or ultimately Germany).

Chip Ahoy said...

I forgot to say, a puzzle just now clued "honey bunch" turned out to be "bees."

The Dude said...

So when I was talking to my close personal friend Tom Wolfe, the author of "From Bauhaus to Our House" I asked him who his favorite contemporary architect was. He responded, without hesitation "Michael Graves". I have seen a lot of Graves' work and I like it.

But at that time I was under the spell of Frank Gehry's work - the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Disney concert hall in LA, and so on, but I deferred to my friend - he did, after all, write the book on that subject.

Unless Gehry gets a commission in the town I currently live in, then I am unlikely to see any of his buildings in person. A friend from Seattle says his building there looks like a chrome plated cow turd. Other than the plated part, I don't disagree.

bagoh20 said...

They should also make it illegal to look up the value of cars before you buy them. You just go in and tell them how much you have to spend and that's the price, then they bring out a car and that's what you get. Seems fair.

This probably makes sense to politicians who spend other people's money with no regard to the value of what they are buying. They think we should all live like other people pay for our stuff.

Titus said...

Charlie baker who signed this was the president of one of the largest employers in mass.

bagoh20 said...

"was". Now he's a politician. Just pulling up the ladder after he used it.

bagoh20 said...

So you are having a conversation with another human being. They have something you may want and vice versa, so you are discussing if you want trade these things. Along comes a complete stranger who doesn't know either one of you or what your needs or goals may be, and this nosey jerk tells you not only what you can pay, and offer in return, but also what questions you can ask, and he'll punish you if you don't do what he says. Who the fuck are you, asshole, and who invited you?

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ndspinelli said...

rc is having trouble sleeping.

The Dude said...

Make that "r,l", Spins, rc is someone else.

And while it might be true that insomnia leads to paranoia and delusions of persecution, that is not something one can diagnose from writing alone.

But she does carry on a nice conversation with her imaginary friends, and as they all say about her "She's good people". Must be really crowded in there...

Leland said...

I have no idea about rcommal's past. First I heard of it. I'm not even sure what happened now. I know in 2011, I was unemployed. I took unemployment insurance. Simple reason; it was insurance paid for by my employer. That's the way it works in my state for the first 6 months. After that, it is federal, and that's another story. All of laid off were told by the state why they wanted us to use the unemployment insurance. The reason was simple; to keep good people with quality skills from pulling up stakes and moving somewhere else, or simply taking a lower paying job. 6 months is reasonable. In my case, I took only 2 months of actual payments, though I was underemployed for 5 months. I ended up with a better paying job, and keeping my talent where I live. The industry that laid me off is now hiring, and they were able to bring back many of the former employees, because they stayed local.

Federal unemployment is federal. I guess it could work the same, but the alternative is moving to another country to find employment. So I don't think it really works like state unemployment. And really it doesn't. You can only get it after being unemployed for 6 months, and after 6 months, it likely is time to look for a location that has jobs. My wife and I were prepared to move. Still are.

The Dude said...

You could read and comprehend that gibberish? Dude, you could work in decryption, just sayin'.

And for the record, she is the only woman in the history of the world to face such difficulties. I am pretty sure that Dorothea Lange took her picture.

bagoh20 said...

I grew up in the worst of the rust belt, and have lived through a bunch of recessions, but I have never been unemployed for more than a few weeks. I have taken unemployment checks when I was, because I've paid a hundred times what I ever got out of it, and that's my money too. There is always work in this country if you really want to work. How many people throughout history have had the luck to be able to provide for themselves and their family by doing only what they want to do? Almost none?

Rabel said...

Whichever one of you it was who stole rc's strawberries should give them back.

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