> If I'm an employer, why ban me from asking some question to a prospective employee? The reason to ban employers from asking this specific question is because

> If I'm an employer, why ban me from asking some question to a prospective employee? The reason to ban employers from asking this specific question is because it makes it easier to perpetuate a cycle where a person who is underpaid at one point in their career continues to be underpaid in the future. Note that I am only saying it makes it easier to perpetuate that cycle. I am not arguing that it guarantees that cycle for everyone. > It's a restriction on the employer's freedom. It absolutely is. Why is that a problem in this specific case? It is not being restricted arbitrarily. I just described the clear and rational reason to want to restrict employers' freedom to ask for a candidate's salary history. At that point simply stating that it violates a freedom isn't good enough. You need to either: A) Argue that I am wrong and asking for a salary history doesn't make it easier to perpetuate a cycle of someone being underpaid. Note that saying "They could refuse to answer" or "They could lie" or "They could find a different employer who doesn't ask" is not arguing that I am wrong. I agree that all of those things are possible. I agree that some people will actually do them and sometimes that will cause them to stop being underpaid. But I also know that some people will not do those things and will tell the employer their previous salary and are more likely to continue to be underpaid as a result. B) Argue that someone being underpaid relative to others with the same skills and responsibilities is not a negative thing and so there is no need to try to prevent it. C) Argue that restricting the specific freedom of employers to ask for a candidate's salary history causes more harm than it prevents. It is definitely a good rule of thumb that restricting freedom is normally bad, but that does not mean it is inherently bad to restrict any freedom. For any specific freedom there will be specific reasons why it is a problem to restrict it. If you ask me why it's a problem to restrict the freedom of the press to report negative things about world leaders, I can give you specific reasons. If you ask me why it's a problem to restrict the freedom of a gay couple to marry, I can give you specific reasons. But if you ask me why it's a problem to restrict the freedom of employers to ask for salary histories, I honestly can't think of a specific reason.