Georgia salary history ban: no state law, Atlanta's city-jobs rule, and what applies (2026)

Georgia has no salary history ban. As of October 2026, no Georgia statute stops a private employer, staffing agency or recruiter from asking what a candidate earns or earned, and the General Assembly's bill search shows no bill on the subject in the 2025–2026 regular session. The only Georgia rule we found is the City of Atlanta's 2019 decision to stop asking applicants for city jobs. Federal equal pay law, and the bans in other states where your hires work, are what limit the question in practice.

Is there a salary history ban in Georgia?

No. Our guide to hiring employees in Georgia and Georgia background check laws page found no statewide rule for private employers, and the legislature's records agree. A search of the 2025–2026 regular session on the General Assembly's site for the phrase "salary history" returns no bill. Earlier sessions saw bills with captions such as "prohibit employer from seeking salary history information," but none became law.

That leaves the question lawful in Georgia. It does not make it a good idea, for the reasons below.

What did Atlanta change?

On February 18, 2019, the City of Atlanta announced that it had removed the salary history question from its employment applications, in print and online, and that its Office of Human Resources would "also remove the salary history question from verbal interviews and employment screenings." The city described it as an extension of its 2014 decision to drop the criminal conviction question from applications.

The change is a city hiring policy, not an ordinance regulating private employers. A recruiter filling a private role in Atlanta is not bound by it. It matters in two cases: candidates applying for City of Atlanta jobs, and vendors who recruit or screen for the city, who should expect the city to want the same practice from them.

What federal law applies to pay history in Georgia?

• The Equal Pay Act. 29 U.S.C. § 206(d) allows a pay difference between the sexes for equal work only under seniority, merit or production systems or "any other factor other than sex."
• The EEOC on prior salary. Section 10 of the EEOC Compliance Manual, Compensation Discrimination, says "Prior salary cannot, by itself, justify a compensation disparity," because prior salaries "can reflect sex-based compensation discrimination." It accepts prior salary only where the employer shows sex was not a factor and other factors were considered too.
• Title VII. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 bars discrimination in compensation because of race, color, religion, sex or national origin at employers with 15 or more employees, the threshold in § 2000e(b).
• Federal contractors. The OFCCP pay transparency provision (41 CFR 60-1.35) is no longer in force. It rested on Executive Order 11246, which Executive Order 14173 revoked on January 21, 2025, and the Labor Department has since rescinded the order's regulations, including part 60-1, effective October 26, 2026 (91 FR 54444). The National Labor Relations Act still protects most private-sector employees who discuss their wages.

When does another state's ban apply to a Georgia hire?

Georgia employers that hire remote staff often hire people who will never work in Georgia. A ban in the state where the hire will work can apply even though the employer and the recruiter are in Georgia. An Alpharetta software company hiring a remote engineer in Chicago should follow Illinois's ban, which the state labor department reads as barring use of pay history even when the candidate volunteers it. Others that come up often are California, New York, Colorado and Maryland. City rules matter too: Philadelphia's ordinance covers any job located in Philadelphia, wherever the employer is based. The list is on salary history ban states.

Next door, Alabama's law does not ban the question but bars refusing to interview or hire someone because they did not give their wage history, which catches recruiters who treat the answer as mandatory.

What may a Georgia recruiter ask?

How do you set an offer without pay history?

The work a salary question was doing still has to be done. Most Georgia desks that have dropped the question replace it with four things:

1. A range agreed before the search. The client's budget and market data set the band; see how to set salary ranges for job postings.
2. The candidate's expectation. Asked early, after the range is shared. Wording is in salary expectation questions.
3. What the candidate would give up. An unvested bonus, a retention payment or equity that lapses on resignation is a fair input to the offer and is not the same question as current salary.
4. Written, job-related reasons. Experience, certifications and scope, recorded when the offer is set. If the offer is ever challenged under the Equal Pay Act, this is the "factor other than sex."

Georgia at a glance

A Georgia script

Opening the pay topic

"The range is $62,000 to $70,000 with a 5% bonus target (example figures). What are you hoping for?"

When the client wants current salary

"Georgia doesn't ban the question, but we don't ask it. Half this shortlist is out of state, and several of those states ban it. Her expectation is $68,000, and she'd forfeit a $4,000 retention bonus by leaving in March."

When the candidate volunteers it

"Thanks. We set offers from the range, so I'll note what you're looking for." Record the expectation, not the salary; see what not to write in interview notes.

Checklist for Georgia searches

1. Confirm where the hire will work, and follow that state's or city's rule if it is outside Georgia.
2. Get the range from the client before screening.
3. Ask for expectations and forfeited pay, not current pay, on screens and reference calls.
4. Never treat a refusal to share pay as a reason to drop a candidate.
5. Keep current pay out of the ATS and the submittal.

Other Georgia rules on the same searches: Georgia staffing agency licensing, Georgia E-Verify requirements and Georgia recording consent for interviews.