Alabama salary history law: what Ala. Code 25-1-30 actually bans

Alabama is often listed among the salary history ban states, but its law does not ban the question. Section 25-1-30 of the Code of Alabama, the Clarke-Figures Equal Pay Act, says an employer may not refuse to interview, hire, promote or employ an applicant, or retaliate against one, "because the applicant does not provide wage history." Asking is lawful. Holding a refusal against the candidate is not.

That narrower rule still changes how a recruiter should run an Alabama search, because the moment a candidate declines to answer, everything you do next is evidence of whether the refusal counted against them.

What the statute says

Section 25-1-30 was enacted by Act 2019-519 (House Bill 225 of the 2019 regular session), which the Legislature's records show took effect September 1, 2019. Subsection (c) reads in full:

"An employer shall not refuse to interview, hire, promote, or employ an applicant for employment, or retaliate against an applicant for employment because the applicant does not provide wage history. Wage history means the wages paid to an applicant for employment by the applicant's current or former employer."

The rest of the section is an equal pay rule. Subsection (b) bars an employer, "including the state or any of its political subdivisions," from paying employees less than employees "of another sex or race" for equal work, unless the difference is due to a seniority system, a merit system, a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, or "any factor other than sex or race."

Narrower than commonly reported

Here is exactly what section 25-1-30(c) does and does not do:

The 2023 session shows what a full ban would have looked like. House Bill 331, introduced in April 2023, proposed rewriting subsection (c) so that no employer could seek wage history, rely on it in considering a candidate, or rely on it in setting pay, with a post-offer exception for history volunteered to support a higher wage. The official code text as of October 2026 still lists only Act 2019-519 in its history, so the proposal did not become law.

Who is covered

Subsection (c) applies to "an employer," and subsection (b) makes clear the section reaches the state and its political subdivisions as well as private employers. There is no headcount threshold in the section. It does not mention employment agencies or agents. A recruiter acting for the client is not named, but a client cannot avoid the rule by having an agency drop candidates who decline to share pay: the refusal to interview or hire would still be the employer's decision.

Enforcement and remedies

• Back wages. Under subsection (d), an employer who violates subsection (b) "or (c)" is liable to the affected employee "in an amount equal to the wages, and interest thereon, of which the employee is deprived by reason of the violation."
• Deadline. Under subsection (h), a civil action under subsection (d) must be started "no later than two years after the act of discrimination giving rise to a cause of action."
• No double recovery. Subsection (g) requires an employee who also recovers under federal law for the same violation to return the smaller of the two amounts.
• Records. Subsection (e) requires employers to adopt the federal Fair Labor Standards Act record-keeping rules in 29 C.F.R. Part 516.

The section does not create an agency fine. Exposure for a wage history violation is the wages the candidate lost, such as pay from a job they were refused because they would not disclose their salary, plus interest.

Should you ask in Alabama?

Legally you can. Practically, there are good reasons not to:

• The refusal creates risk either way. Once you have asked and the candidate has declined, any later rejection can be framed as retaliation for not answering. If you never ask, that argument never arises.
• Equal pay exposure. Setting pay from prior pay can carry forward a gap that subsection (b) and the federal Equal Pay Act prohibit. "Factor other than sex or race" is a defense the employer has to prove.
• Multi-state roles. A remote role filled from Alabama may attract candidates in states with full bans. One process that never asks is simpler than tracking which candidate lives where.

The alternative is the same as everywhere: share a range and ask for expectations. The wording is in salary expectation questions.

Setting offers that survive the equal pay rule

Subsection (b) is where most Clarke-Figures exposure sits, and it is broader than the federal Equal Pay Act in one respect: it covers race as well as sex. An employer may pay different rates for equal work only under a seniority system, a merit system, a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, or "a differential based on any factor other than sex or race." Subsection (f) requires an employee claiming a violation of subsection (b) to plead with particularity that they were paid less for equal work and that the wage schedule is not correlated to a permissible condition.

Prior pay is the factor most likely to be challenged, because it can carry forward the very gap the statute addresses. Offers are easier to defend when they rest on things the employer controls:

• the posted or budgeted range for the role;
• documented, job-related differences in skill, experience or certification;
• a written note of why the offer sits where it does in the range, made when the offer is set;
• a check against current employees doing equal work before the offer goes out.

None of this requires knowing what the candidate earns now. It does require writing down the reasons, which subsection (e)'s record-keeping duty already points toward.

An Alabama script

If your client insists on asking

"Some clients ask about current pay. You're welcome not to answer, and not answering won't affect whether you move forward. Would you like to share it, or would you rather just tell me what you're looking for?"

When the candidate declines

"No problem at all. The range is $55,000 to $63,000 (example figures). Does that work?" Then make no note of the refusal in the ATS or the submittal. A record saying "would not disclose salary" next to a rejection is exactly the evidence subsection (c) cases are built on; see what not to write in interview notes.

When the client wants to drop the candidate for not answering

"Alabama law doesn't allow refusing to interview or hire someone because they didn't give their pay history. If there's a different concern, such as the budget, let's talk about her expectation of $61,000 instead."

Alabama checklist

1. Decide as a policy whether you ask at all; the safest choice is not to.
2. If a form asks, make the field optional and say that declining has no effect.
3. Never record a refusal to disclose pay, and never let it appear in a rejection reason.
4. Set offers from the role's range and documented job-related factors.
5. Check the candidate's state for remote roles; see salary history ban states and illegal interview questions.