Aiming to provide some clarity to California employers regarding Assembly Bill 168 (the “Salary History” law), Governor Brown recently signed AB 2282 – which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2019.
AB 2282 clarifies a few terms that were considered confusing to many employers. Specifically, the new bill provides further clarification on what exactly “applicant,” “reasonable request” and “pay scale” means. And while AB 2282 prohibits asking about salary history, the law does not prohibit employers from asking applicants about their salary expectations. The new law specifies that the term “applicant” only refers to those seeking employment outside the company, and not current employees looking to transfer to other positions.
This following sentence has also been clarified in the new law: An employer, upon reasonable request, shall provide the pay scale for a position to an applicant applying for employment.
The term “pay scale” has been clarified to mean a salary or hourly wage range, and “reasonable request” means a request made after an applicant has completed an initial interview with the employer. Pay scale information is only required to be released by employers after the applicant’s first interview. (Employers are not required to offer that information to competitors or cold callers generally interested in that position.)
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