Didech Votes to End Discriminatory Hiring Practices; Close Gender Pay Gap

BUFFALO GROVE, Ill. – In an effort to promote equal pay for women in Illinois, state Rep. Daniel Didech, D-Buffalo Grove, voted this week to advance a bipartisan measure cracking down on the unfair and discriminatory hiring practice of asking job seekers for their salary history.

“When companies ask job seekers to submit their salary history they can lock women into a lifetime of pay inequality,” Didech said. “Some companies use this information to calculate salaries, rather than a person’s qualifications or experience. This is a discriminatory practice that needed to be stopped.”

House Bill 834, co-sponsored by Didech, amends Illinois’ equal pay act to prohibit companies from asking for a job seeker’s salary history, or attempting to obtain it any other way. The bill will be especially helpful for women, who often experience lower starting salaries, who are looking for salaries equal to their qualifications for a job. Didech hopes this will help close Illinois’ gender pay gap.

“Women are the more likely to receive lower starting pay than men and that means they are also the most common victims of discrimination based on past salary,” Didech said. “This law helps put women and men on equal footing by making sure that when they apply for a job they can ask for what they know they are worth.”