Effective Oct. 1, 2020, Maryland employers will be prohibited from requesting or relying on an employment applicant’s wage history to make decisions about employment or initial pay rates, requiring many employers to make immediate changes to their hiring practices. Although the state passed the Equal Pay for Equal Work law in 2016, prohibiting gender-based pay discrimination, the law applied only to employees and not to applicants. Two amendments to the Equal Pay for Equal Work law will extend certain protections to applicants for employment and prohibit retaliation against employees for asking about their own wages. This includes several restrictions on inquiring about or using salary history in the hiring process, requiring employers to provide an applicant with the wage range for an open position upon request, prohibits potential employers from retaliating against an applicant for employment because the applicant makes a complaint, brings an action or testifies under the Equal Pay law, and prohibits applicants from making groundless or malicious complaints against employers or otherwise proceeding in bad faith.
