Short backstory: Me and my wife are employed by Government Contracting companies in California. They're a private company that bids for contracts offered by the Department of Defense to provide services or goods. The Government is required to allow other companies to bid on these contracts every so many years, and almost every time – a new company wins the bid. In almost all most cases, the new company brings aboard all of the people filling the existing billets and everyone keeps doing the same job, just with a different employer.
My wife is going through just that, this very moment. Her current employer lost the contract to a different company, that is now going through the process of “hiring” everyone as soon as the contract begins the first of September.
During her first conversation today with the new companies HR Rep, Project Lead, and President, she told them how much she would like her compensation to be and asked what the new company was going to offer her. The president of the company responded by saying:
“Well, since this is California – I'm not allowed to ask you how much you currently make… We won this contract by bidding lower than your previous employer, as a result our wages are being kept low as well … BUT – if you are willing to send us a recent paystub, we can potentially offer you more.”
Essentially, he threatened her with lower wages if she didn't provide proof of what she's currently making. After talking with some of the other 20+ people who were also employed by the previous company, she learned they had ALSO coerced into answering the same or similar questions during their interview/onboarding process. It seems their intent is to learn exactly how much everyone is currently making, to determine how little they can bring everyone aboard for.
This seems to be in direct violation of the “California Equal Pay Act”, as shown in the excerpt below:
“Effective January 1, 2018, Labor Code section 432.3 prohibits an employer from, either orally or in writing, personally or through an agent, asking any information concerning an applicant’s salary history information, which includes compensation as well as benefits. Furthermore, the law prohibits an employer from relying on an applicant’s salary history information as a factor in determining whether to offer employment at all or in determining what salary to offer. ” ( California Equal Pay Act )
But there doesn't appear to be any good recourse, until they send her an offer letter and we can prove they used that information to determine her salary (or to hire her at all).
Her conversation with the new company was incredibly adversarial, and I felt awful I couldn't intervene or speak on her behalf. She's scared to be assertive or question what they say, as she doesn't want to jeopardize her employment. We're pretty blown away, and honestly don't know what to do from here.