Maine Equal Pay Measure Passes on National Equal Pay Day

On National Equal Pay Day, Maine lawmakers passed a bill that discourages employers from basing prospective workers’ wages on their salary history in an attempt to promote pay equity between men and women.

The bill (LD278) would prohibit employers from asking about or using prior wage or salary information until after an offer of employment has been made. It would allow workers to use an employer’s salary history question as “evidence of discrimination with respect to compensation.”

Given that men with bachelor’s degrees earn as much as 20 percent more than their female colleagues straight out of college, ...