Indiana salary history ban: no state law, the Seventh Circuit's prior pay rule and what applies

Indiana has no statewide law that bars employers from asking job candidates about their salary history, as of October 2026, and we found no Indiana city ordinance that does. Federal equal pay law is the main limit, and in Indiana it is more permissive than in most of the country: the Seventh Circuit, which covers Indiana, has "repeatedly held" that a pay difference based on what employees were previously paid is a legitimate "factor other than sex." The line that changes a recruiter's script is the Illinois border, where the question is banned.

This page covers the state position, what Indiana's preemption statutes do and do not reach, the Seventh Circuit's rule and its limits, and the cross-border cases around Chicago, Louisville and Cincinnati.

Is there an Indiana salary history ban?

No. The labor title of the 2026 Indiana Code, Title 22, contains no provision on asking about or relying on an applicant's pay history, and our guide to hiring employees in Indiana and Indiana background check guide found none elsewhere. An Indiana employer, staffing agency or search firm may ask a candidate what they earn now.

Can Indiana cities pass their own salary history bans?

Indiana has two local preemption statutes in Title 22, and neither names salary history:

• IC 22-2-17-3, added in 2017, says a political subdivision may not prohibit an employer from obtaining or using criminal history information during hiring, or from asking about or requiring disclosure of criminal history "at the time an individual makes an initial application for employment." It is a ban-the-box preemption, limited to criminal history.
• IC 22-2-16-3 says a unit may not "establish, mandate, or otherwise require an employer to provide to an employee" a benefit, a term of employment, a working condition, or an attendance, scheduling or leave policy beyond federal or state requirements. Its wording is about what employers provide to employees, not what they may ask applicants.

The legislature showed in IC 22-2-17 that it knows how to preempt a hiring question when it wants to, and it did not do so for pay history. Whether IC 22-2-16-3 would still be read to block a city salary history ordinance is an open question that no Indiana city has raised: we found no city or county ordinance in Indiana on the subject.

What does the Seventh Circuit say about using prior pay?

The federal Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1), allows unequal pay for equal work only under a seniority, merit or production system or "a differential based on any other factor other than sex." Courts disagree about whether prior pay counts. In the Seventh Circuit it generally does.

In Lauderdale v. Illinois Department of Human Services, No. 16-3830, decided November 30, 2017, the court said it "has repeatedly held that a difference in pay based on the difference in what employees were previously paid is a legitimate 'factor other than sex,'" citing its 2005 decision in Wernsing and earlier cases. The same opinion adds the limit: "Basing pay on prior wages could be discriminatory if sex discrimination led to the lower prior wages."

That is the opposite of the Ninth Circuit's rule in Rizo v. Yovino and more permissive than the EEOC's view in its Compliance Manual, Section 10, which says "prior salary cannot, by itself, justify a compensation disparity." An Indiana employer sued in federal court will be judged under the Seventh Circuit's rule; an EEOC investigator reviewing a charge works from the manual. Wisconsin sits in the same circuit and goes further, with a statute that expressly lets employers ask; see the Wisconsin salary history page.

The Indiana case that shows why starting pay lingers

Kellogg v. Ball State University, No. 20-1406, decided January 5, 2021, came from Ball State's Indiana Academy. A teacher hired in 2006 testified that the director said she "didn't need any more" starting salary because her husband worked; she sued in 2018. The court held the starting-salary decision was "precisely the kind of decision covered by the Ledbetter Act," because the Academy based her later pay on raises from that starting figure, so "each of Kellogg's paychecks gave rise to a new cause of action." It reversed summary judgment for the employer.

The lesson for recruiters is about time. The reason written down for an offer today can be read in a lawsuit twelve years later, and an offer anchored to an earlier salary carries that anchor into every raise built on it.

Does Indiana have its own equal pay law?

Yes, inside the Minimum Wage Law. IC 22-2-2-4(a) bars an employer from paying employees of one sex less than employees of the opposite sex in the same establishment for equal work, except under a seniority system, a merit system, a production-based system, or "a differential based on any other factor other than sex." But IC 22-2-2-3 defines "employer" for that chapter as one with two or more employees and excludes any employer "subject to the minimum wage provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act." Most Indiana employers are covered by the federal act, so the federal Equal Pay Act and the Seventh Circuit's reading are what apply to them.

Which neighboring rules reach Indiana recruiters?

Indiana's metro areas straddle state lines, and the rules change at the border:

• Illinois. 820 ILCS 112/10 bars employers and employment agencies from screening on pay history, requiring it, or asking a current or former employer for it, and a volunteered figure still cannot be used. Northwest Indiana desks filling Chicago-area jobs, or hiring Illinois-based remote workers, should follow the Illinois salary history ban.
• Ohio. Ohio has no statewide ban, but some Ohio cities do, including Cincinnati and Columbus. Southeast Indiana searches for Cincinnati employers should check the city rule; our salary history ban states list has the details.
• Michigan and Kentucky. Neither has a statewide ban on our list.

The trigger is where the job or the remote worker is, not where your office sits. A Fort Wayne agency placing a remote engineer who lives in Chicago is working an Illinois search.

What can a recruiter ask instead?

Lawful in Indiana does not mean useful. An expectation tells you whether the offer will close; a current salary mostly tells you how to underpay. Ask for the target, the floor, and anything the candidate would forfeit by leaving; wording is in salary expectation questions.

Opening the pay topic

"The range is $31 to $36 an hour with benefits from day one (example figures). Where would you need to be?"

When the client wants current pay

"I can ask in Indiana, but I don't. If an offer ever has to be defended, 'matched her old salary' is the weakest reason on file. His target is $34 and he'd lose a shift premium of $1.50 by moving."

When a candidate from Illinois applies for an Indiana-based job

Apply your normal process; the job is in Indiana. If the role is remote and the person will work from Illinois, switch to the Illinois process before the first call.

An Indiana checklist

1. Decide once whether your desk asks about pay history. Most multistate desks drop it everywhere.
2. Route Illinois jobs and Illinois-based remote workers through the Illinois process, and check city rules for Ohio jobs.
3. Set offers from the range, the role and job-related qualifications, and record the reasons; the record may be read years later.
4. If prior pay is used, check that it does not carry an earlier sex-based gap into the new offer.
5. Keep volunteered figures out of notes and submittals; see what not to write in interview notes.

Indiana salary history rules at a glance