An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 3 – Hiring

 It is legal to consider, as well as obtain, an applicant’s salary history as it pertains to employment at a public school or other federal, state, or local agency under the exception for salary information that is publicly available under the California Public Records Act or Freedom of Information Act; 116  If an applicant “voluntarily and without prompting” provides his or her salary history, the school may consider that information in determining the applicant’s salary, but not in determining whether to offer employment; 117 and,  “Upon reasonable request”, the school must provide the pay scale for a position to an applicant for a position. 118

Effective January 1, 2019, a new California law clarified some of these requirements. 119 The new law defines “pay scale” as “a salary or hourly wage.” 120 It also defines a “reasonable request” for a pay scale as “a request made after an applicant has completed an initial interview with the employer.” 121 Therefore, schools are not required to comply with a request for a pay scale from an applicant who has not yet completed an interview. The new law also clarifies that employers are not prohibited from asking an applicant about his or her salary expectation for the position for which the applicant is applying. 122 Schools should review their employment applications and interview procedures to ensure they do not ask about or consider an outside applicant’s salary history from prior private employment. Schools may also want to look at using alternative methods to determine the salary placement of new employees that do not include the use of prior salary history. E. W AIVERS F ROM A PPLICANTS T O O BTAIN B ACKGROUND I NFORMATION As part of the written application process, a school should receive from each applicant authorization to obtain information from former employers, educators, and references. F. I NTERVIEWERS S HOULD R EVIEW A PPLICATIONS P RIOR T O T HE I NTERVIEW Each individual responsible for interviewing applicants and who has a role in the employment selection process should review the applications and resumes of candidates prior to the interview. This will provide the interviewer an early opportunity to begin comparing candidates and to consider the following:  Did the applicant properly complete the application form and properly interpret questions on the form?  Is any relevant information missing from the form?

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 53