Short answer: no, not everywhere, and the rules aren't what most people assume. Federal law doesn't ban salary history questions at all. But a fast-growing list of states and cities do, and it's specifically the history question that's off-limits, not "what are you looking for." Those are two different questions with two different answers.
Mixing them up is the most common mistake I see. Let's separate them properly.
Asking a candidate what they earned at their last job, or asking a previous employer to confirm it, is the specific thing these laws target. Some states ban asking the candidate directly. Others also ban asking a former employer, or using salary history you happen to already know to set an offer.
Not every law is worded the same way. But they're all aimed at the same thing: stopping your past pay from following you into your next job and capping what you get offered there.
Asking about salary expectations is a different conversation. You're asking what the candidate wants going forward, not what they made before. That question is legal in the states that ban salary history questions, and legal in the ones that don't.
I'll be direct about this one: if you've been avoiding it out of caution, stop. You need it to make an offer that doesn't waste everyone's time. Ask what range they're expecting. That's not the banned question.
The logic behind these bans is pay equity, and it's a real argument, not just a talking point. Say someone gets underpaid at their first job. If every future offer gets built off that number, the gap doesn't stay put. It compounds every time they change jobs.
Basing pay on the role and the market, instead of on what someone happened to accept years ago somewhere else, is supposed to break that cycle. I think that's a reasonable goal. Whether you love the extra compliance step is a separate question.
Here's where I won't hand you a number and pretend it's final. A large and growing group of states, plus a long list of cities, have some version of a salary history ban on the books right now. New ones get added most years.
I'm not going to print a state-by-state list here and let it go stale the moment a new law passes. If you want the real answer for where you're hiring, check your state's current law, or ask a lawyer, before you build your interview process around a number from any blog post. Mine included.
Here's what I can tell you with confidence. This list only moves in one direction. States keep adding these bans, not repealing them. If your state doesn't have one yet, plan like it's coming.
This happens constantly. A candidate mentions their current salary without you asking for it. In most places, that doesn't put you in violation, since you didn't ask. But a few states go further and restrict whether you can even use that number to set an offer, even when the candidate handed it to you first.
My advice: don't chase the number even if they offer it. Build your offer off the role and your range, not off what they say they made somewhere else. It keeps you out of a gray area you don't need to be in.
Skip the history question entirely and go straight to what you actually need to know.
All three get you what you need without touching the banned question. And posting your range upfront solves most of this before the interview even starts. A growing number of states require that too, which is a separate topic worth its own article.
Depends on the state, but it's not nothing. Penalties range from a warning on a first offense to real fines, and some laws let a rejected candidate sue over it directly. This isn't a rule that only lives on paper.
I'm not going to guess at your state's specific penalty and state it like fact. Look it up, or ask someone who handles this for a living. That's worth five minutes before your next interview, not after.