I’m a hiring manager so I know why this is happening. In 2018, it became illegal for employers to ask for your salary history or current compensation in California. The rationale was to close the gender pay gap.
I’ve found that the side-benefit of this is that when interviewing candidates, this cuts down the number of offers that are rejected because the compensation is less than they were expecting. As an applicant myself, whenever I’m asked for my “expected salary range” (that’s how some people will try to wiggle out of not asking for salary history, they ask for your expectations), I feel confident enough to just say “I’d prefer to discuss the salary range for the position rather than my expectations” and it works.
