Salary History Bans, Job Mobility, and Pay Gaps

Abstract

Salary history bans (SHBs) restrict employers from inquiring about applicants’ prior pay and are intended to reduce gender pay gaps. Exploiting staggered adoption across U.S. states, we find that wages rise for both men and women under SHBs, consistent with stronger worker bargaining. Pay gaps for new hires do not narrow, but overall gender pay gaps widen. Hiring and job switching decline under SHBs, with larger effects for women, and match quality declines for all workers. The larger decline in women’s mobility helps explain why overall gender pay gaps widen.