UpTrajectory Review

The BBC Business piece tackles a question nearly every job candidate faces and few handle well: what to do when an interviewer asks about your current or past salary. The available text is brief, but the framing suggests the article gathers expert guidance on deflecting or navigating salary-history questions during interviews. This is a live issue in hiring right now, as a growing number of jurisdictions in the US and elsewhere have banned or restricted salary-history inquiries in an effort to close pay gaps, while many employers still ask the question out of habit or as a screening tool. The context matters because the question is rarely neutral; it is often a negotiation anchor that can suppress wages before a real offer is even on the table.

For a small-business owner or operator, this is not just an employee-side concern. If you are doing the hiring, how you handle salary-history questions says a lot about your compensation practices and your exposure to legal risk. Several US states and cities now prohibit asking candidates about prior pay, and the trend is spreading. Even where it is legal, leading with salary history can perpetuate underpayment, especially for women and candidates from underrepresented backgrounds, and it can quietly undermine your own pay equity. If you are the one being interviewed, perhaps while exploring a career shift or a side venture, knowing how to redirect the conversation protects your earning potential from day one.

What is genuinely useful here is the shift in framing: the question is not whether to answer, but how to steer the exchange toward your value and the market rate for the role, not your last paycheck. Experts typically advise pivoting to salary expectations or the compensation band for the position, and the BBC piece appears to follow that line. We agree with that approach and would push it further: small employers should stop asking the question entirely. It adds little signal about what a candidate is worth and creates compliance headaches as more jurisdictions regulate the practice. If you need to screen for fit, ask about expectations upfront and post your own range.

The second-order effects cut in both directions. Candidates who refuse to disclose may face friction with employers who see evasiveness as a red flag, which can disadvantage people already facing bias in hiring. Employers who abandon salary-history questions may need to invest more in market benchmarking and structured pay bands, which is a real cost of time and possibly outside advice. But the downstream benefit is a cleaner, more defensible compensation structure that reduces turnover driven by perceived unfairness. For small teams where pay disparities are visible and morale is fragile, that is not a minor gain.

Watch whether salary-transparency laws keep spreading, and expect candidates to arrive at interviews more prepared to deflect or negotiate. If you hire, audit your interview scripts now, post salary ranges where required or as a best practice, and train whoever interviews to talk about expectations rather than history. If you are job hunting while running a business, rehearse a short, confident redirect and do your own market research before you walk in. The original BBC piece likely offers specific phrasing worth borrowing, so read it before your next interview or your next hire.

“Experts explain what you should do if you are asked for your current salary during a job interview.” — BBC Business

Takeaway: Stop asking candidates about salary history; post ranges and discuss expectations instead to reduce legal risk and pay-equity problems.