Iowa salary history ban: no state law, and Iowa Code 364.3(12) keeps cities from adding one

Iowa has no law that bars employers from asking job candidates about their salary history, as of October 2026, and unlike most states without a ban, its cities and counties cannot add one. Iowa Code 364.3(12) bars a city from adopting, enforcing or administering any ordinance on terms of employment that exceed or conflict with state or federal law on "hiring practices," and Iowa Code 331.304 does the same for counties. The 2025 bill that would have created a statewide ban, Senate File 187, stalled in committee. What applies instead is Iowa Code 216.6A, the state's wage discrimination law, which reaches employers with as few as four employees.

Is it illegal to ask about salary history in Iowa?

No. The Iowa Code has no salary history provision, and a search of the Iowa Legislature's current (2025-2026) legislation for "salary history," "wage history" and "compensation history" finds only one bill, SF 187, which was not enacted. Private and public employers may ask; a candidate may decline, and no Iowa statute protects that choice. The state's other hiring rules are in hiring employees in Iowa.

What would SF 187 have done?

Senate File 187, the "Pay Transparency and Fairness Act," would have added a new subsection 2A to Iowa Code 216.6A making it an unfair or discriminatory practice for an employer or its agent to, among other things:

• "Seek salary history information, including but not limited to information on compensation and benefits, from a potential employee as a condition of a job interview or employment," while still allowing a question about "what salary level the prospective employee would require in order to accept a job";
• release a current or former employee's salary history to a prospective employer during hiring "without written authorization from such current or former employee";
• advertise a position without its minimum rate of pay, and pay a new hire less than the advertised rate.

It also would have narrowed the "any other factor" defense to bona fide, job-related factors consistent with business necessity and not derived from a discriminatory pay difference. The bill was introduced and referred to the Senate Workforce Committee on February 3, 2025; a subcommittee was named on February 4, 2025, and its history shows no later action as of October 2026.

Can an Iowa city or county pass its own ban?

No, and this is what sets Iowa apart from other states without a statewide law. Iowa Code 364.3(12)(a) reads:

"A city shall not adopt, enforce, or otherwise administer an ordinance, motion, resolution, or amendment providing for any terms or conditions of employment that exceed or conflict with the requirements of federal or state law relating to a minimum or living wage rate, any form of employment leave, hiring practices, employment benefits, scheduling practices, or other terms or conditions of employment."

Paragraph (b) makes any such ordinance adopted before March 30, 2017 "void and unenforceable on and after March 30, 2017." Iowa Code 331.304(12) applies the same text to counties. A local salary history ban would be an ordinance on hiring practices that exceeds state and federal law, which is what these sections forbid, so an ordinance like Cincinnati's or Kansas City's is not available to Des Moines or Iowa City. Consistent with that, we searched the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids codes on Municode for "salary history" and "wage history" in October 2026 and found nothing.

Our list of salary history ban states names Wisconsin and Michigan as states that block local bans; Iowa's statute does the same work through its broader "hiring practices" language.

What does Iowa's wage discrimination law require?

Iowa Code 216.6A makes it an unfair or discriminatory practice "for any employer or agent of any employer" to pay an employee less than other employees in the same establishment "for equal work on jobs, the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions," because of the employee's age, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion or disability. Compared with the federal Equal Pay Act:

Two more details. Section 216.6A(2)(b) says a violation occurs when a discriminatory pay decision is adopted, when someone becomes subject to it, or when someone is affected by it, "including each time wages, benefits, or other compensation is paid," so an offer priced off biased prior pay keeps producing claims for as long as it is paid. And the words "or agent of any employer" matter to staffing firms and recruiters: Iowa's statute names you directly.

Can an Iowa employer use prior pay to set an offer?

Nothing in Iowa law forbids considering it, but it is a weak defense for a gap. Under both 216.6A and the federal Act, the employer must prove that a "factor other than" the protected characteristic explains the difference. The EEOC's Compliance Manual section on compensation discrimination, issued in 2000 and still on eeoc.gov as of October 2026, says "Prior salary cannot, by itself, justify a compensation disparity," because prior pay can carry forward earlier discrimination. Title VII, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-2(a), adds a federal claim for employers with 15 or more employees.

Because 216.6A protects nine characteristics rather than one, a pay gap traced to prior salary can be challenged on more grounds in Iowa than under the federal Equal Pay Act alone. Offers that rest on the posted range and documented, job-related factors avoid the question.

Do neighboring states' bans reach Iowa recruiters?

Often, because two neighbors ban the question statewide. If the person will work in Minnesota, see the Minnesota salary history ban, which also covers employment agencies; if in Illinois, see the Illinois salary history ban. Kansas City, Missouri, bans it for employers with six or more employees. Wisconsin goes the other way: 2017 Wisconsin Act 327 says "An employer may solicit information regarding the salary history of prospective employees" and bars local bans. Remote postings raise the matching pay range question; see pay transparency for remote jobs.

Should an Iowa recruiter ask about current pay?

For agencies with desks on both sides of the Mississippi or the Minnesota line, one no-history process is simpler than tracking each candidate's state. Licensing and screening rules are in Iowa staffing agency licensing, Iowa background check laws and E-Verify requirements in Iowa.

An Iowa script

Opening the pay topic

"This role pays $56,000 to $64,000 plus benefits (example figures). What would you need to make a move?" More wording is in salary expectation questions.

When the client asks what the candidate earns now

"I don't collect current pay; Iowa's pay law covers us as your agent, and offers are easier to defend when they come from the range. Her expectation is $62,000."

When the candidate volunteers current pay

"Thanks. We set pay from the role, so the useful number is what you're looking for." Record the expectation only.

Iowa summary

Iowa checklist

1. Adopt a no-pay-history policy even though Iowa allows the question.
2. Share the range first and ask for expectations.
3. Record the job-related reasons for each offer; do not let prior pay explain a gap.
4. Keep volunteered figures out of notes and submittals; see what not to write in interview notes.
5. Check the state where a remote hire will work, starting with Minnesota and Illinois.