North Carolina salary history ban: Executive Order 93, private employers and what still applies

North Carolina has no statewide law that bars private employers from asking job candidates about their salary history, as of October 2026. The one statewide rule is Executive Order No. 93, signed by Governor Roy Cooper on April 2, 2019, which bars state agencies under the Governor's oversight from requesting salary history from applicants and from relying on prior salary to set pay; it says private employers are "encouraged but not required" to follow it. Senate Bill 607, the 2025 bill that would have extended a ban to all employers, has sat in the Senate Rules Committee since March 26, 2025, and we found no city or county ordinance on the question.

That makes North Carolina a "you may ask, but think before you use it" state. This page covers what the order does, why local bans are unlikely, what federal equal pay law says about using prior pay, and the cross-border cases that catch recruiters, especially Virginia.

Is there a North Carolina salary history ban for private employers?

No. We found no North Carolina statute that limits pay history questions by private employers, and neither did our guide to hiring employees in North Carolina or our North Carolina background check guide. The pending bill below would put the first such rule into the Wage and Hour Act, which is itself a sign that none exists today. A private employer, a staffing agency or a search firm may ask a North Carolina candidate what they earn now.

The pending proposal is Senate Bill 607 of the 2025 session, titled the "North Carolina Equal Pay Act." As filed, it would add a section to Article 2A barring employers from screening applicants on their wage or salary history, including by requiring that prior pay meet minimum or maximum criteria, and from seeking a prospective employee's salary history from any current or former employer. A candidate could authorize an employer in writing to confirm prior wages only after an offer with compensation had been made. The bill also says an employee's previous wage or salary history "shall not be a defense" to an equal pay claim. Its last action, as of October 2026, is the referral to the Senate Committee on Rules and Operations on March 26, 2025. Nothing in it is law.

What does Executive Order 93 require of state agencies?

Executive Order No. 93, "Prohibiting the Use of Salary History in the State Hiring Process," applies to any North Carolina department, agency, board, commission or committee "for which the undersigned has oversight responsibility." Section 3 sets three rules:

• State agencies "are prohibited from requesting salary history from applicants" and "may not rely upon previously obtained prior salary information in determining an applicant's salary."
• Because state employee salary history is a public record, the Office of State Human Resources (OSHR) "will take best efforts" to ensure agencies do not use it in a discriminatory manner.
• OSHR "shall remove employment salary history fields from its state employment applications."

Agencies must train relevant managers and staff and report those efforts to OSHR in their annual Equal Employment Opportunity Plans. The order "does not create a private right of action," and it "shall remain in effect until amended or rescinded by future Executive Order." It is still posted on the Governor's site, and we found no later order rescinding it among those Governor Josh Stein has issued as of October 2026.

The order is narrower than it sounds. Section 5(c) says state entities outside the Governor's oversight, counties, municipalities, other local government agencies and private entities "are encouraged but not required to comply." If you recruit directly for a cabinet agency, follow it; if you recruit for a county, a city, a hospital system or a private client, it does not bind you.

Can North Carolina cities pass their own salary history bans?

For a few years they plainly could not. Session Law 2017-4, section 3, said no local government "may enact or amend an ordinance regulating private employment practices," and section 4 made that moratorium expire on December 1, 2020.

One preemption rule remains. G.S. 95-25.1(d) says the Wage and Hour Act preempts any local ordinance that "regulates or imposes any requirement upon an employer pertaining to compensation of employees, such as the wage levels of employees, hours of labor, payment of earned wages, benefits, leave," with an exception for a local government's own employees. It does not mention hiring questions or applicants, so whether it would block a local salary history ordinance is an open question. We found no city that has tried: a search of the legislative records published by Charlotte, Greensboro, Mecklenburg County, Wake County and Durham County found no salary history item, and we found no North Carolina ordinance that bars private employers from asking.

What does federal law say about using a candidate's prior pay?

The federal Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1), bars paying one sex less than the other for equal work in the same establishment unless the difference rests on a seniority system, a merit system, a production-based system, or "a differential based on any other factor other than sex." Whether prior salary counts as such a factor is where the risk lies.

The EEOC's Compliance Manual, Section 10, still posted as of October 2026, says "prior salary cannot, by itself, justify a compensation disparity," because prior salaries "can reflect sex-based compensation discrimination." It allows the defense when the employer shows sex played no part and that it "considered the prior salary, but did not rely solely on it." For a North Carolina offer, that means:

• Build the offer from the role's range, the candidate's skills and experience, and internal equity.
• If a current salary does enter the conversation, treat it as one input at most, and record the job-related reasons for the final number.
• Watch for the classic pattern: two people hired into the same job, the one who earned less before is paid less now, and the only written reason is "matched current salary."

If your client is reviewing ranges, a pay equity audit before posting ranges catches gaps that started at the offer stage.

What about candidates and jobs across the state line?

North Carolina's rules stop at the border, and Virginia's do not. Since July 1, 2026, Virginia Code § 40.1-28.7:12 bars employers of every size from seeking a prospective employee's wage or salary history, with the general definition of employer reaching anyone acting in an employer's interest. A Charlotte or Raleigh recruiter filling a job in Danville, Norfolk or Northern Virginia, or a remote job held by someone in Virginia, should run that search under the Virginia salary history ban.

South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee are not on our list of salary history ban states, so for most border searches the North Carolina answer holds; Tennessee also limits its cities' power to add one (see the Tennessee salary history page). Remote roles are different: a candidate who will work from California, Colorado, Illinois or another ban state can bring that state's rule with them. A national desk is safer with one process, never asking, than with a state-by-state exception list.

What can a recruiter ask instead?

Ask about the future, not the past. Expectations, the minimum a candidate needs to move, and what they would give up by leaving (an unvested bonus, a pension step) are all lawful everywhere and tell you more about whether the offer will close. Wording for each is in salary expectation questions.

Opening the pay topic

"The range for this role is $68,000 to $78,000 plus the standard benefits package (example figures). What are you hoping for?"

When the hiring manager asks "what is she on now?"

"I don't ask that. We set offers from the range and the role, which keeps us clean on equal pay. Her expectation is $75,000."

When the candidate volunteers a number

"Thanks. It's not something we use to set the offer. What would make the move worth it for you?" Record the expectation, not the history; see what not to write in interview notes.

A North Carolina checklist for agencies and in-house teams

1. Decide once whether your firm asks about pay history at all. Most multistate desks drop the question everywhere rather than keep a list of where it is allowed.
2. For direct-hire searches for cabinet agencies, follow Executive Order 93: no salary history request, and no reliance on salary information you already hold.
3. Route Virginia jobs and Virginia-based remote hires through the Virginia process.
4. Keep current-pay fields out of submittals; send the expectation and the reason for it.
5. Write down the job-related reasons for each offer figure.
6. Check Senate Bill 607's status before each legislative session.

North Carolina salary history rules at a glance

For candidates who push back on pay questions in either direction, see how recruiters answer candidate salary questions.