New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary
I&#x27;d prefer to see this go in the other direction and make all salary information public.<p>Right now, employers have far more information than employees, and I don&#x27;t think this law will do much to change that.  To me, it&#x27;s similar to real estate - imagine if only sellers had access to the database of exactly what every house sold for and when, but buyers had to go with unsubstantiated, scattered rumors.  Or vise versa.  The side with information would have a monumental advantage.<p>This law won&#x27;t do much, if anything, to change the basic dynamic.  For what it&#x27;s worth, I work for a public institution and my salary, and the salary of all my coworkers, is public.  The sky hasn&#x27;t fallen.<p>If tech companies balk, one approach would be to say that any company using the H1B or other work visas must make all salary information public as a condition of using the visa.  After all, if you&#x27;re experiencing a desperate shortage of workers, it&#x27;s reasonable for the public to know what salaries you&#x27;re paying these desperately needed workers in short supply.