Huge news! Vice President Kamala Harris announced on March 15—Equal Pay Day—that the Biden Administration will take concrete steps to address federal agencies’ use of salary history. A new Executive Order that followed says that OPM anticipates issuing a regulation that will “address the use of salary history in the hiring and pay-setting processes for Federal employees.”

Also exciting—Government Executive and the Federal News Network both mentioned DOJ GEN’s advocacy on pay equity in their coverage of this news.

Although we’re elated the government will finally move on this, we’re worried the ban won’t be complete. Vice President Harris said a factor “that contributes to the gender pay gap is the common practice requiring applicants to share their salary history,” but it’s far from clear that the federal government will ban agencies’ consideration of it too. As DOJ GEN told OPM in a letter last summer, any exception allowing agencies to use salary history to set pay may swallow the rule. This is not an academic question; at DOJ, we know of situations where job candidates who volunteered their past salary were able to get a better offer because of it. Setting salary based on past experience and the job at issue, and not an applicant’s past earnings, is an essential measure to halt the perpetuation of pay inequities that disproportionately hit women and people of color.

DOJ GEN plans to urge OPM to issue a regulation that bans the solicitation and consideration of salary history. We also want to encourage agencies—including DOJ—to implement their own complete bans now. It can take a lot of time to draft and implement a regulation, and there’s no need for agencies to wait to take this commonsense step toward pay equity. We’ve already reached out to nonprofit advocacy organizations and federal unions so we can try to form a coalition as we move forward, and we’ve already begun working with DOJABA on this important issue.

Look for more updates on this soon. In the meantime, learn more about our Pay Equity Project or click the button below to sign up and get involved!