Coming Soon to Kansas City: Shorter Job Applications

The Kansas City, Missouri City Council has unanimously passed an ordinance banning private employers in the City from asking job applicants about their salary history.

Last year, KCMO passed a similar resolution banning the City from requesting salary history information from persons applying for city positions. Starting October 31, 2019, that ban will extend to all employers in Kansas City with six or more employees. The ordinance will ban employers from requesting salary history information, relying upon it, or discriminating against job applicants who do not provide it. “Salary history” includes “current or prior wages, benefits, or other compensation.” The ban applies to all conversations between employers and applicants, and includes public record searches. Violations will be punishable by a fine of as much as $500 or up to 180 days in jail.

Of course, the ordinance comes with exceptions. The ban does not apply to the following:

• Applicants for internal transfer or promotion with their current employer;
• An applicant’s voluntary and unprompted disclosure of salary history information;
• Salary history inadvertently disclosed during an employer’s attempt to verify an applicant’s disclosure of non-salary related information or conduct a background check, so long as the information is not relied upon for purposes of determining the applicant’s compensation.
• Employee positions for which salary, benefits, or other compensation are determined pursuant to procedures established by collective bargaining; and
• Applicants who are rehired by an employer within five years of termination if the employer already possesses salary information from the applicant’s prior employment.

The explicit goal of the new ordinance is to help narrow the gender pay gap. While women nationwide earn roughly 80% of every dollar their male counterparts earn, women in Missouri and Kansas earn roughly 78% and 77%, respectively. In Kansas City, the gender pay gap is almost 22%, which is one of worst wage divides among major U.S. cities. 

The ordinance will undoubtedly benefit male applicants as well. Wage history has long been used by employers to set the compensation for new hires. However, requiring the disclosure of prior wages creates bias and can cause many applicants, both men and women, to feel stuck in their social class with a capped earning capacity. With the new ordinance, applicants’ wage history will no longer follow them into job interviews. Hiring will instead be about the job duties and the applicant’s skill set.