Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the Answer of 7 March 2022 to Question 129064 on Equal Pay, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of prohibiting employers from requesting salary history from new employees.

There is growing evidence to show that, when pay is negotiable, asking applicants to disclose previous earnings and not including salary information in the advert increases the risk that historic disparities will be replicated. Research from the Fawcett Society suggests that questions about salary history particularly disadvantage women's confidence in pay negotiations.

On International Women’s Day this year, we called on all employers to provide salary information in all of their job adverts, and to stop asking about previous salary during recruitment.

We recognise that some employers may find it challenging to take these steps, due to historic pay decisions and lack of clarity in pay processes. That is why we also announced that we will work with employers to develop and pilot a methodology to support them to adopt these measures. The first meeting of the methodology working group took place at the start of this month.