Even though employers shouldn’t be asking and prospectiveemployees shouldn’t be disclosing, the practice of asking for acandidate’s salary history is still common.

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In yet another example of the wage gap, according to a studyfrom PayScale,Inc. women who decline to provide information about theirsalary history end up getting paid less for doing so — aspunishment, perhaps? Whatever the reason, women who don’t give asalary history when asked earn 1.8 percent less than those who doprovide it.

Compared with the male candidate, who, if he refuses to forkover the information, is offered 1.2 percent more.

While 43 percent of job candidates are asked for a salaryhistory during an interview — and this despite the fact that manystates and cities have passed laws or have pending legislationbanning employers from asking — only 23 percent of those who areasked refuse to provide it. Prospective employees, naturallyenough, are reluctant to refuse, despite the fact that answeringthat question could “suppress their salary for the duration oftheir career,” according to PayScale.

Interestingly, the more senior the position, the more likely acandidate is to be asked about salary history, and the less likelyhe or she is to provide it. Boomers are more likely to refuse,while millennials are more likely to cave. And in Boston, where thesalary history question will be illegal in 2018, the rate ofrefusal (30 percent) is highest, while in Chicago, the rate ofrefusal is lowest at just 16 percent.

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In a statement, Lydia Frank, vice president of content strategyat PayScale, says “there are real dangers in using a previous paynumber to determine a current offer.”

Frank adds, “The best way to set pay is to use market data andto ensure the offer is consistent with the company’s compensationphilosophy and practices. In the long run, if compensation ismisaligned with the talent market, the employer ends up with payinequities that are not defensible, employees feel unfairly treatedand talent retention becomes a critical problem.”

Companies should stop asking the question, says PayScale, andprice the job, not the person. Women, for their part, should makesure they know the current market value of the job they’re applyingfor before they start negotiating salary, and should not letthemselves be negatively by a low previous salary.

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“We were surprised to see the data pertaining to the gender paygap which shows that refusing to provide salary history doesn’timprove the odds of fair pay for women but, in fact, has a negativeimpact,” Frank continues.

“While we don’t know exactly why this is the case, other studieson unconscious bias show that women pay a ‘social cost’ when theyadvocate for themselves in negotiation situations, because itdeviates from expected gender norms. In this instance, managers orrecruiters may be reacting differently when women and men refuse todisclose salary history when asked.”