Why a worker’s salary history should never dictate their future earnings – The National

Why a worker’s salary history should never dictate their future earnings – The National

Banning employers from applying salaries based on a candidate's past can help policymakers strike a blow against structural racism and sexism

















About half of employers ask about an applicant's past compensation before making a job offer, a 2012 study by economists Robert Hall and Alan Krueger found. Getty Images







Suppose you're on a trip overseas and you need to buy a shirt, but you don't know any of the brands. You see two shirts in a store that both look pretty good, but one costs twice as much as the other. You might assume that the more expensive shirt somehow is superior - that it's better made or that the locals will see it as more stylish. You might decide it's worth the price and spend the extra money.



This isn't how economics is supposed to work. Econ 101, taught at US universities, teaches us that demand curves slope down; when something is more expensive, buyers are supposed to want less of it, not more. But when it's hard to find information about the quality of what you're buying, people may use the price as a signal of value and pay