Montana salary history ban: no state law, what SB 313 would have done, and a 1919 equal pay law with no listed defenses

Montana has no law that bars employers from asking job candidates about their salary history, as of November 2026, and we found no salary history rule in the codes of its largest cities. The 2025 Legislature had a ban in front of it: Senate Bill 313, the Wage Opportunity and Transparency Act, would have stopped employers from seeking an applicant's pay history and required wage ranges in postings, but it was tabled in committee and died. What applies instead is a 1919 equal pay statute with no listed defenses, the Montana Human Rights Act, which covers employers with one employee, and the Ninth Circuit's rule that prior pay cannot justify a pay gap.

Is it illegal to ask about salary history in Montana?

No. The Montana Code Annotated has no provision on salary history questions. Private and public employers may ask; a candidate may decline, and no Montana statute protects a candidate who does. Our guide to hiring employees in Montana and Montana background check guide reach the same conclusion.

What would SB 313 have done?

Senate Bill 313, introduced by Senator Shane Morigeau on February 13, 2025 under the short title "Revise laws relating to wage transparency," would have created the "Wage Opportunity and Transparency Act." Its section 3(2) said an employer may not:

• "seek the wage rate or salary history of an applicant for employment from the applicant or a current or former employer";
• "require that an applicant's prior wage rate or salary history meet certain criteria";
• discriminate or retaliate against a prospective employee "for failing to disclose" wage rate history.

Section 3(3) would have let an employer confirm pay history only "if the applicant has voluntarily disclosed" it or "after the employer has negotiated and made an offer of employment with compensation." The bill would also have required wage information in job postings, including recruitment done "indirectly through a third party," and required an employer defending a pay difference to show "that prior wage rate history was not relied on to justify a disparity in current wage rates."

The record: referred to Senate Judiciary on February 14, 2025, re-referred to Business, Labor and Economic Affairs on February 21, tabled in that committee on March 4, 2025 on a 10–2 vote, missed the deadline for transmittal of general bills on March 12, and "Died in Process" on May 23, 2025. Nothing in it is law.

What does Montana's equal pay law say?

Montana Code 39-3-104(1), first enacted in 1919, reads:

"It is unlawful for the state or any county, municipal entity, school district, public or private corporation, person, or firm to employ women in any occupation within the state for compensation less than that paid to men for equivalent service or for the same amount or class of work or labor in the same industry, school, establishment, office, or place of employment of any kind or description."

Two features stand out. The section lists no exceptions at all: no seniority or merit system and no "factor other than sex." And subsection (2) makes a violation a misdemeanor punishable by a fine "not less than $25 or more than $500 for each offense." The fine is small; the absence of a written defense is the part to notice before pricing an offer off someone's old pay.

What does the Montana Human Rights Act add?

Montana Code 49-2-303(1)(a) makes it unlawful for an employer "to discriminate against a person in compensation or in a term, condition, or privilege of employment" because of race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, disability, marital status or sex, when the reasonable demands of the position do not require the distinction. For recruiters the definitions in 49-2-101 matter most:

How do federal courts in Montana treat prior pay?

Montana is in the Ninth Circuit. In Rizo v. Yovino, No. 16-15372, filed February 27, 2020, the en banc court held "that an employee's prior pay cannot serve as an affirmative defense to a prima facie showing of an EPA violation," and that "prior pay, alone or in combination with other factors, cannot serve as a defense." The employer must show the gap was "in fact justified by job-related factors other than sex." The court said its rule concerns the defense, "not the consideration of prior pay to make a competitive job offer, to negotiate higher pay, or to set a salary."

The federal Act, 29 U.S.C. 206(d)(1), and Title VII, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-2(a), for employers with 15 or more employees, apply on top of the state statutes. The EEOC's Compliance Manual section on compensation discrimination, still on eeoc.gov as of November 2026, says "Prior salary cannot, by itself, justify a compensation disparity."

Can Montana cities pass salary history bans?

We found none that has. In November 2026 we searched the Billings, Missoula, Bozeman, Great Falls and Butte-Silver Bow codes on Municode and the Helena code on American Legal for "salary history," "wage history," "pay history," "prior salary" and "compensation history" and found no provision.

State law also limits them. Montana Code 7-1-111 says a local government with self-government powers is prohibited from exercising "any power that applies to or affects any private or civil relationship, except as an incident to the exercise of an independent self-government power," and "any power that applies to or affects the provisions of 7-33-4128 or Title 39," the labor title, "except that subject to those provisions, it may exercise any power of a public employer with regard to its employees." The section does not mention salary history, so reading it as blocking a private-employer ban is an inference, but the words "private or civil relationship" and "Title 39" make one hard to defend. A city can still take the question off its own applications.

Do other states' bans reach Montana recruiters?

None of Montana's neighbors, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota, bans the question statewide; see Idaho's rules, for example. The exposure is remote and traveling work:

A Billings energy company hiring an engineer who will work from Denver, or a Missoula firm hiring a remote designer in Seattle, should apply that state's rule. Remote postings raise the matching pay range question; see pay transparency for remote jobs.

Should a Montana recruiter ask about current pay?

Agency licensing and other hiring rules are in Montana staffing agency licensing and E-Verify requirements in Montana.

A Montana script

Opening the pay topic

"This role pays $60,000 to $68,000 plus benefits (example figures). What are you hoping for?" More wording is in salary expectation questions.

When the hiring manager wants to match the old salary

"Montana's equal pay law has no written exception for that, and in the Ninth Circuit old pay won't defend a gap. Let's set it from the range and his certifications and write down why."

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; see what not to write in interview notes.

Montana summary

Montana checklist

1. Adopt a no-pay-history policy; a bill like SB 313 may return in a later session.
2. Share the range and ask for expectations.
3. Write down the job-related reasons for each offer; Montana's equal pay law gives you no listed exception to rely on.
4. Answer pay complaints quickly; Human Rights Act complaints run on a 180-day clock.
5. Check the state where a remote hire will work against our salary history ban states list.