Utah salary history ban: no state law, the 2025 bill that failed, and what Utah does limit before an offer

Utah has no law that bars employers from asking job candidates about their salary history, as of October 2026. The most recent attempt, HB 180 in the 2025 general session, would have covered only state executive branch agencies, and it was held in committee and filed as not passed on March 7, 2025, according to the Legislature's bill record. A search of the Legislature's 2026 bills finds no salary history bill. Utah does limit some questions before an offer, under its Employment Selection Procedures Act, but pay history is not among them. The real constraint on using pay history in Utah comes from a Utah case: Riser v. QEP Energy, where the Tenth Circuit held that prior salary alone cannot justify a pay gap.

Is it illegal to ask about salary history in Utah?

No. Nothing in the Utah Code bars the question for private employers, and nothing bars it for state agencies either. The Utah Legislature's own search, run in October 2026 across the Code, bills and committee documents for "salary history," "wage history" and "compensation history," finds no Code section and no 2026 bill. Utah's other hiring rules are collected in hiring employees in Utah.

What would HB 180 have done?

HB 180, "Employee Compensation Amendments," was sponsored by Rep. Gay Lynn Bennion. According to the sponsor's presentation to the House Government Operations Committee on February 14, 2025, it would have prohibited a state employer, meaning executive branch agencies, from asking an employee or prospective employee to disclose compensation or salary history. Higher education, school districts, the Attorney General's office, the Legislature and other independent entities were to be excluded. Private employers were never in scope.

The bill's history shows it moved from the House Business, Labor, and Commerce Committee to Government Operations, was held there on February 14, was returned to Rules on March 4, and was filed in the "House file for bills not passed" at the end of the session on March 7, 2025.

What does Utah limit before a job offer?

Utah's Employment Selection Procedures Act, Title 34, Chapter 46, is the closest thing the state has to a question-limiting law, but it does not cover pay. It applies to an "employer" with 15 or more employees in Utah for each working day in 20 or more calendar weeks (34-46-102), and it says three things:

• Three identifiers wait for the offer. Under 34-46-201, an employer "may not request the following information before an applicant is offered a job: (a) Social Security number; (b) date of birth; or (c) driver license number," unless the request applies to every applicant for the position, comes at the point where the employer runs a criminal background check, credit check, driving record check, internal records review or government program step, and the applicant consents.
• Screening data stays in screening. Under 34-46-202, information from the initial selection process may be used only to decide whether to hire, and may not be passed to anyone else for "marketing," "profiling," "reselling of the information" or similar uses, with exceptions such as disclosures required by law.
• Screening data has a shelf life. Under 34-46-203, the employer must keep a written policy on retention, access and confidentiality of that information, show it to an applicant who asks before they provide information, and, except as law requires, not keep it more than two years if the applicant is not hired in that time.

Bills in earlier sessions, most recently in 2022, proposed adding a compensation history ban to this act. The act as published in October 2026 contains none. It still matters for pay: a current salary a candidate volunteers and you write into the screening file is screening information, held under your retention policy and the two-year limit. The simplest course is not to record it at all.

How does Utah law treat pay discrimination?

The Utah Antidiscrimination Act, Utah Code 34A-5-106, bars an employer from discriminating "in matters of compensation" because of race, color, sex, pregnancy, age (40 and older), religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity. It defines that phrase as "the payment of differing wages or salaries to employees having substantially equal experience, responsibilities, and skill for the particular job," while allowing uniformly applied longevity increases. The act reaches employers with 15 or more employees in Utah, plus the state and its political subdivisions (34A-5-102), and separately covers employment agencies.

What did Riser v. QEP Energy decide about prior pay?

Kathy Riser sued QEP Energy in federal court in Utah under the federal Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. 206(d)(1), which allows a pay difference for equal work only under a seniority, merit or production system or "a differential based on any other factor other than sex." The district court granted QEP summary judgment. In Riser v. QEP Energy, No. 14-4025, decided January 27, 2015, the Tenth Circuit reversed on the Equal Pay Act claim. It said "an individual's former salary can be considered in determining whether pay disparity is based on a factor other than sex," but that the Act "precludes an employer from relying solely upon a prior salary to justify pay disparity," and that the 31% gap with one male colleague "cannot be justified simply by" his prior salary.

The EEOC's Compliance Manual section on compensation discrimination, issued in 2000 and still on eeoc.gov as of October 2026, takes the same line: "Prior salary cannot, by itself, justify a compensation disparity." Title VII, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-2(a), also bars compensation discrimination by employers with 15 or more employees. Federal courts in Utah, and the rest of the Tenth Circuit, apply Riser.

Do Utah cities have salary history rules?

We searched the Salt Lake County and Sandy codes on Municode for "salary history" and "wage history" in October 2026 and found nothing. We did not verify Salt Lake City's code for this page; if you hire for the city itself, check it.

Do other states' bans reach Utah recruiters?

Yes, when the work happens there. A Utah company hiring someone who will work in Colorado is under Colorado's ban, which covers every employer with someone working in the state; see the Colorado salary history ban. Nevada also bans the question; see the Nevada salary history ban and the full list in salary history ban states. Remote postings raise the parallel pay range question, covered in pay transparency for remote jobs.

Should a Utah recruiter ask about current pay?

Staffing firms should run one no-history process for every desk. Agency licensing and screening rules are in Utah staffing agency licensing, Utah background check laws and E-Verify requirements in Utah.

A Utah script

Opening the pay topic

"This role pays $70,000 to $80,000 plus benefits (example figures). What are you looking for?" More wording is in salary expectation questions.

When the candidate asks why the application has no Social Security field

"Utah doesn't let us ask for that until the background check or an offer. We'll ask then, with your consent."

When the hiring manager wants to match the candidate's old salary

"We can weigh it, but it can't be the only reason. Riser came out of Utah. Let's tie the number to the range and her experience, and write that down."

Utah summary

Utah checklist

1. Adopt a no-pay-history policy even though Utah allows the question.
2. Take Social Security number, date of birth and driver license number off pre-offer forms unless an exception in 34-46-201 applies.
3. Never let prior pay be the only reason for a pay difference; record the job-related reasons for each offer.
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 Colorado and Nevada.