Some lawmakers want to make it illegal to ask your salary history
Still, it shouldn’t be counted out yet, said Fatima Goss Graves, a senior vice president at the National Women’s Law Center. “People can see the connection of the deep unfairness of carrying past discrimination with you to job after job,” she said. And the support the issue received from the business community in Massachusetts could be galvanizing. “When states show that something is possible, that’s extremely reinforcing.” Even if it doesn’t go anywhere at the national level, Goss Graves believes that more states could follow suit. “Just as we’re seeing Congress take this up,” she said, “in 2017 I think this will be an issue to watch.”