I shouted with joy when it was announced that the completely vile practice of prospective employers demanding that you reveal your compensation history will (at least in MA) become illegal next year:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/business/dealbook/wage-gap-massachusetts-l aw-salary-history.html ...and even though it's reported as being intended largely to defend against gender discrimination it is *long* overdue in all cases. Our skills/abilities/services have a market value and it's arrogant for a prospective employer to attempt to decide what's "proper" based on whatever our previous circumstances were; if I was overpaid in my previous gig it's not their responsibility to perpetuate that error, and if I was underpaid they are not somehow entitled to continue the punishment, either. I'm mentioning this because in my experience headhunters/ recruiters ask early and often for lots of sensitive info about a candidate's circumstances (not just compensation) while offering as little as possible in return. This new legislation applies directly to them because in many cases they end up being your employer in contract situations, even though it's easy to forget that because you may never lay eyes on them or their place of business. I've had some success deflecting rudely inapprpriate questions along these lines by ignoring them and countering with: What do you know about the client? Do you have an existing relationship? What do you know about the hiring manager(s)? the team? [ Too often, they only know what they've scraped off the prospective client's WWW site, ie. nothing... ] What's their budget? What rate would you intend to charge them for my services? What rate are you offering me? How do you account for the difference?" ...etc. Obviously, every situation is different; sometimes we're in the driver's seat and sometimes we're nearly powerless, often it's a distasteful mix. --M _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
