A new law in New York City eliminates your least favorite interview question — and Wall Street isn’t happy

Wall Street execs fear
that a new law in New York City could lead to lower pay for
men.
Nick
Starichenko/Shutterstock

Don’t tell Wall Street executives how to pay their people.

At least that’s what the two chairmen of the Partnership for New
York City, a nonprofit membership organization made up of top
business leaders in New York City, told the mayor’s
representatives,
The New York Times reports.

The two men — Stephen Schwarzman, the chairman and CEO of the
Blackstone Group, and Michael Corbat, the CEO of Citigroup — are
among a growing chorus of Wall Street executives complaining to
Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor who oversees housing and economic
development, about a new law that will change the way Wall Street
firms negotiate compensation packages.

Their biggest concern?

That the recently passed New York City law,
which bars public and private employers from asking job
candidates about their current or previous salary, will make
recruiting and paying top talent more challenging,
according to The Times.

Letitia James, New York’s public advocate, who
introduced the legislation, begs to differ. She argues that
discussing previous salary information increases wage
discrimination.

“Being underpaid once should not condemn one to a lifetime of
inequity,” James said
in a press release when the bill was passed in April. “We
will never close the wage gap unless we continue to enact
proactive policies that promote economic justice and equity.”

The stakes are high for Wall Street firms — in 2016, employee
compensation contributed nearly $24 billion to New York’s
economy, according to
The Times.

One argument
The Times mentioned opposing the new law contended that the
law may actually decrease pay for men and fail to increase pay
for women, which would negatively affect New York City’s tax
revenue.

But Glen says she expects the law to have a positive impact. She
told
The Times:

“We have to break the cycle of pay discrimination. Every firm is
grappling with how to retain and promote more women into their
senior leadership — this is part of the solution. Having spent
more than a decade on Wall Street, I fundamentally believe this
industry will be stronger when women up and down the ladder are
compensated fairly.”

Read the full article on The New York Times »