On August 1, 2016, Massachusetts became the first state to pass a law barring employers from asking applicants to disclose their salary history before offering a job. Proponents of Massachusetts’ bipartisan legislation hope this law will remediate the nationwide gender pay gap; according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau, women are paid 79 cents for every dollar that men earn. The Massachusetts law, which will go into effect in July 2018, aims to reduce that gap by preventing employers from “low-balling” female applicants — who traditionally have earned less than their male counterparts — during salary negotiations by offering them a wage based on their previous salary. Similar laws have been contemplated or introduced in multiple states, including California, and may hint at the beginning of a nationwide trend.

BACKGROUND: MASSACHUSETTS’ LAW IS YEARS IN THE MAKING -

Massachusetts’ law rose out of a 1989 lawsuit brought by a group of female cafeteria workers at a public school who claimed that they did work comparable to that performed by the school’s male custodians, but were paid just over half of what the men earned. The cafeteria workers sued under Massachusetts’ Equal Pay Act in effect at the time, which prohibited employers from paying female employees less than male employees for work of “like or comparable character.” The court considered whether the cafeteria workers’ and custodians’ duties required comparable skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions, and found the work was indeed comparable under this standard. The Court ruled in favor of the female cafeteria workers.