Employee Group Calls for Ban on Using Salary History in Hiring Process
The DOJ Gender Equality Network (DOJ GEN) recently called on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to stop permitting hiring managers to ask for an applicant’s salary history when hiring. Last year, six Department of Justice (DOJ) employee associations wrote a letter to DOJ component leaders calling for an end to this practice, but the Justice Management Division responded, saying that the practice was justified under federal hiring regulations.
With President Biden signing a diversity and inclusion executive order (EO) in June, DOJ GEN claims now is the time to close the wage gap for minority groups who have historically faced discrimination relating to their wage and pay.
In an August 5, 2021 letter to OPM Director Kiran Ahuja, the DOJ GEN President Stacey Young explained, “To eliminate ongoing race- and gender-based wage disparities that the administration acknowledges are unjust, OPM should encourage all agencies to give their employees the option of requesting an audit of how their salary compares to their peers. OPM should also encourage agencies to conduct a global pay review so they can become aware of any inequities and adjust upwards the salaries of those who have been victims of unlawful wage disparities.”
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on July 26, Larry Leiser, President of the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys (NAAUSA), highlighted how a lack of pay equity between attorneys at U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and other DOJ attorneys results in potentially less diverse staff in these field offices. Specifically, women and people of color who have disproportionately high debt burdens may not be able to consider careers at lower paying U.S. Attorneys’ Offices.
Leiser said in the letter, “AUSAs are paid significantly less than other Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys with the same experience and responsibilities, often as much as $40,000 per year. This pay gap is profoundly unfair, widely known, and deeply destructive to morale. While it is well known that the gap negatively impacts the retention of AUSAs, NAAUSA believes the discrepancy also makes a career as a federal prosecutor cost prohibitive for many diverse and underprivileged Americans.”
President Biden’s EO instructs agency heads to “make advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility a priority component of the agency’s management agenda and agency strategic planning.”
OPM Director Kiran Ahuja stated in a discussion with reporters promoting the EO on August 4, “The federal government has traditionally been seen as a pathway to the middle class, with less inequities when you compare the whole calendar of pay to other sectors, where you see a huge distinction between top executives and those underneath, but there’s a lot more we can do. It’s about offering competitive pay, equitable pay, workplace flexibilities, and really being a model employer when it comes to telework, remote work, as well as providing opportunities to up-skill and continue to grow in positions.
Correction: An earlier version of the article misnamed DOJ GEN. It is the DOJ Gender Equality Network, not the DOJ Equity Network.
