According to email correspondence with officials at BOLI, the agency ultimately determined that the new law doesn’t grant enforcement authority until January 1, 2019. The salary history provision was contained in one section of the Oregon Equal Pay Act (HB 2005), which also greatly expanded employers’ potential liability for pay differences among employees performing “comparable” work. Most of the pay equity bill takes effect on January 1, 2019. The only other different compliance date is January 1, 2024, which is when workers have the option to file private lawsuits to enforce the prohibition on asking about wage history, as an alternative to complaining to BOLI. More information is available on BOLI’s FAQ on Equal Pay.
Tips: Even though BOLI won’t start enforcement until January 1, 2019, we recommend complying with the new law’s prohibition on salary history inquiries by the October 6, 2017, deadline. To do so, be sure to delete questions about salary history from your application and interview process. If you missed our 2017 Oregon legislative update webinar, you can still download the handout. In that webinar, we covered not only the pay equity bill, but also new legislation on daily overtime and maximum hours for manufacturers, predictive scheduling, and Oregon sick leave amendments. Contact your Vigilant employment attorney if you have any questions about these important legislative developments.
The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) says it won’t begin enforcing Oregon’s new prohibition on asking workers about their wage history until January 1, 2019, even though it officially takes effect on October 6, 2017.
