Wisconsin salary history law: Wis. Stat. 103.36 lets employers ask and blocks local bans

Wisconsin has no salary history ban, and it is one of the few states that put the opposite in its statutes: Wis. Stat. § 103.36, created by 2017 Wisconsin Act 327, says "an employer may solicit information regarding the salary history of prospective employees" and bars cities, villages, towns and counties from enacting or enforcing a ban. As of October 2026 that is still the law; the 2025 bills that would have repealed it, Assembly Bill 512 and Senate Bill 540, failed on March 23, 2026. The limits Wisconsin recruiters do face come from federal equal pay law and from Illinois and Minnesota, both of which ban the question.

What does Wis. Stat. 103.36 say?

Section 103.36 is titled "Employer right to solicit salary information of prospective employees; statewide concern; uniformity." It has three parts:

• Subsection (1) gives employers the right to solicit salary history from prospective employees.
• Subsection (2) declares a uniform statewide right to solicit salary information a matter of statewide concern, so that local bans conflict with state law.
• Subsection (3) bars any city, village, town or county from enacting or enforcing an ordinance that prohibits employers from soliciting salary history, and says any such ordinance in effect on April 18, 2018 does not apply and may not be enforced.

2017 Wisconsin Act 327, from 2017 Assembly Bill 748, was enacted on April 16, 2018 and published the next day. The same act preempted local rules on hours and overtime, employee benefits and wage claims, and barred local occupational licensing stricter than the state's. Our guide to hiring employees in Wisconsin and Wisconsin background check guide cover the rest of the hiring rules.

Does section 103.36 mean employers should ask?

No. It protects a choice; it does not require one. Section 103.36 limits what local governments may forbid. It does not oblige any employer to ask, and it does not change equal pay law, which governs what an employer does with the answer.

Milwaukee shows the difference. On May 30, 2018, weeks after Act 327 took effect, the Common Council adopted File 180136, a resolution "directing the Department of Employee Relations to remove salary history from employment applications" for city jobs, and the Mayor signed it on June 8, 2018. That is a city deciding how it hires its own staff, not an ordinance telling private employers what they may ask.

What would the 2025 repeal bills have done?

Assembly Bill 512 and its companion Senate Bill 540, introduced in October 2025, would have repealed section 103.36 and created a new section 103.135 "prohibiting an employer from relying on information about a prospective employee's compensation when making employment decisions or inquiring about a prospective employee's compensation and from restricting an employee's right to disclose compensation information," with actions in circuit court and a penalty. Both were referred to committee and "failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1" on March 23, 2026, so neither became law. Similar bills failed in earlier sessions. A ban would now need a new bill in the next Legislature, which convenes in 2027.

What limits does federal law put on using 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 unless the difference rests on a seniority, merit or production system or "any other factor other than sex." Federal courts in Wisconsin follow the Seventh Circuit, which is among the most permissive on prior pay. In Lauderdale v. Illinois Department of Human Services (2017), it 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.'"

The same opinion and the EEOC set the edges:

• Tainted prior pay. "Basing pay on prior wages could be discriminatory if sex discrimination led to the lower prior wages." An offer that copies a gap from the last employer can import it.
• The EEOC's position. Its Compliance Manual, Section 10, still posted as of October 2026, says "prior salary cannot, by itself, justify a compensation disparity." A charge investigated by the EEOC will be read that way even though a court in Wisconsin applies the circuit's rule.
• Records last. Starting-pay decisions can support claims years later, as an Indiana case in the same circuit shows; see the Indiana salary history page for Kellogg v. Ball State University.

Which neighboring bans reach Wisconsin recruiters?

Wisconsin's two biggest labor-market neighbors ban the question, and many Wisconsin searches cross into them:

The test is where the job or the remote worker is. A Milwaukee agency placing a candidate in a Waukegan plant, or hiring a remote analyst who lives in St. Paul, cannot rely on section 103.36; Illinois or Minnesota law governs that search.

Should a Wisconsin employer ask about salary history?

It may, but there are practical reasons many do not:

• One process for every state. A desk that recruits into Illinois and Minnesota is simpler to run, and easier to defend, if nobody asks anywhere.
• The answer anchors the offer. Once a current salary is in the file, it tends to set the offer, which is exactly the prior-pay reliance equal pay claims test.
• Expectations predict closing better. What the candidate wants, and what they would forfeit by leaving, tells you whether the offer will be accepted. See salary expectation questions.

If you do ask

Ask once, record it outside the submittal, and set the offer from the range and job-related qualifications with the reasons written down. Never treat a refusal to answer as a negative.

If you do not ask

"The range is $55,000 to $64,000 plus benefits (example figures). What would you need to make the move?" If the client asks for current pay: "We don't collect it; her target is $62,000 and she'd lose a $2,500 bonus paid in March."

A Wisconsin checklist

1. Decide your policy: asking is lawful in Wisconsin, but choose one approach for the desk.
2. Route Illinois and Minnesota jobs, and remote workers in those states, through their bans.
3. Set offers from the range, the role and job-related qualifications; record the reasons.
4. Check that any prior pay you use does not carry a sex-based gap into the new offer.
5. Keep volunteered figures out of notes and submittals; see what not to write in interview notes.
6. Watch the 2027 session for another repeal bill.

Wisconsin salary history rules at a glance