<prompt> Human: Beginning at the beginning, Im being courted by the head of another department at the same company I currently work at. Ive basically decided to take the gig for a number of reasons we dont need to get into, but were now at the sticky point of salary negotiations. Luckily for me, I live in the greasy, throbbing heart of capitalism, NYC, and the benevolent Mayor De Blasio recently signed into law a ban preventing employers from asking about your salary history. Now, Im unsure on whether the law applies to me, seeing as I already work on the cube farm, but I insisted on not saying what I currently make. From there, I made an offer I felt was fair, which luckily landed right in the middle of the boss budget. Now heres where I got a bit confused: He agreed that the figure seemed fair, but said he needed to check with HR in case there was a rule against giving an existing employee too much of a pay bump. In short: is that a thing, or am I being taken for a ride? I dont think it will matter too much either way, but it seems like something useful to know.TL;DR: Is it common for a company to have a rule against giving an employee too much of a pay increase? Also, if anyone understands the grittier points of the ban on questions about salary history, Id love to be enlightened. Heres the bill itself for the curious.  <response>: Some companies do have such a rule, but it sounds like this is less of a rule a your company and more of a manager trying to hedge without knowing your current salary. Hell go to HR, theyll disclose you salary, hell decide if that is too much of a bump based on whatever he would have done if you had disclosed your salary.Even if there is a rule about salary increase size, any high enough priority hire can be made an exception. He might need to enlist a VP, but HR rules about salary are negotiable. Always. This doesnt mean you always get what you want and often they call it a rule when they want to refuse your request. 