Executive Summary: Subject to limited exceptions, federal, state, and local laws already require employers to pay men and women equally for doing similar work under similar working conditions. In another important effort to narrow the gender wage gap, four U.S. states, three cities, and the territory of Puerto Rico have recently passed laws that impose even stricter equal pay obligations on employers. These “past pay privacy” laws prohibit employers from seeking certain information about job applicants’ historical salaries. Without exception, these laws are gender-neutral. Thus, they aim to stop lower wages from following both women and minority workers in their professional careers and stop wage disparities from perpetuating in the United States labor market.
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