Some US cities and states have made it illegal to ask about a candidate's current salary. https://www.businessinsider.com/places-where-salary-question-banned-us-2017-10
However, in each interview situation multiple states can be involved, so I'm wondering how to determine which law(s) apply here. Options are
- Residence state of candidate and/or interviewer
- Headquarter state of the company
- State where the company is incorporated (mostly Delaware these days)
- State where the interview takes place (could be two, if it's a phone or video call)
- Location of work place (often not known during exploratory phase)
The last one seems like a reasonably choice, but it many cases it's not been determined yet. For example, my current employer has offices in multiple states and we leave it up to the candidate to pick the location they like best. That happens fairly late in the game and sometimes only after the offer has been signed, so any salary negotiation would happen before that.
Another example: if it's a Work Remotely gig: Is it the candidate's resident state or the nearest company location, where you need to show up once a month?
Related: Will New York City's new law prohibiting questions about salary history protect residents who are applying for jobs outside the city? gives a partial answer but is less comprehensive.
Also related: Statutory Rape: Which State's Laws Apply?. This one concludes "state is determined by the location of the offense". If we apply the same logic here, we'd get "physical location of the interviewer at time of interview". Which would mean that an interviewer from New York (here it's illegal) could just drive over the river and make the phone call from New Jersey (where it's legal).