U.S. - New York - Westchester County pay transparency law guide

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Introduction

Effective Nov. 6, 2022, Westchester County's pay transparency law (Local Law 2022-119) requires employers with four or more employees to provide minimum and maximum salary ranges on all job postings, transfer listings, or promotion opportunities. 

The law notes that each salary range must be based on what the company "in good faith believes" it will pay.

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Westchester County Pay Transparency Requirements

Employers in Westchester County that have at least four employees must adhere to the law when posting a job opportunity that is required to be performed, either wholly or partially, within Westchester County. This includes work conducted from an office, in the field, or remotely.

In addition, the law makes it illegal to use salary history to determine pay for employees, or to request salary history information from an employee or prospective employee, or their former employer. The exception to this rule is that they may use salary history "when it is voluntarily provided by a prospective employee to support a wage higher than the wage offered by the employer."

The Risks of Non-Compliance

Violations of the law are subject to the remedies and penalties outlined in the Westchester Human Rights Law. These may include back pay, front pay, punitive damages, costs, and civil penalties that can amount to $250,000 for willful violations.

How Can Trusaic Assist with Westchester County Pay Transparency Law Requirements?

The goal of pay transparency laws is to promote practices that lead to a more equitable compensation environment. Similar to salary history ban laws, requiring pay ranges on job postings promotes fair pay practices and holds organizations accountable.  

If implemented thoughtfully and strategically by an organization, pay transparency can promote a better work environment where employees believe they are paid fairly. Providing salary ranges on job postings can also positively narrow the applicant pool and improve the hiring experience. 

Absent salary range information, a job candidate could go through a multi-week interview process only to discover the job offer is far below their salary expectation. This wastes the candidate's time and causes financial and reputational damage to the employer. 

The task of moving toward full pay transparency can be daunting for an organization. 

1. Comply - Use Trusaic's Salary Range Finder to ensure fair and competitive pay at the time of hire:

Salary Range Explainability: Salary Range Finder helps you establish and post competitive and equitable pay ranges to confidently comply with pay transparency laws.

2. Correct - Use PayParity and OpportunityParity to understand, explain and resolve pay disparities:

Trusaic's pay equity software alleviates the concern of moving to full transparency by identifying the root cause of pay disparities and remedying them. Additionally, it supports the creation of equitable, compliant job postings and enables a consistent approach to pay range disclosure. 

This empowers your organization to execute compensation plans with complete confidence that pay equity is at the center. 

OpportunityParity™, a feature of Trusaic's workplace equity analysis software, offers a complete solution for pinpointing and remedying equity concerns in your organization's hiring, promotion, and retention processes. 

Drawing from diverse global directives like the OFCCP, EEOC, EU Pay Transparency Directive, and more, it ensures fairness and inclusivity throughout your talent lifecycle, irrespective of geographical boundaries or regulatory frameworks. 

How OpportunityParity Supports Your Goals:

  1. Improves equitable career advancement: Build equity into every aspect of your talent management process, from recruitment to retention.
  2. Analyzes and improves opportunity equity: Identify and address disparities in hiring, promotion, performance assessment, and retention.
  3. Helps you achieve workplace equity objectives: Use forecasts to help achieve your diversity objectives and accelerate progress with data-driven insights. 
  4. Builds a culture of trust and transparency: Elevate human capital, bolster people sustainability, and fortify social responsibility metrics by fostering an environment of trust and transparency.

Leveraging Trusaic's workplace equity software suite will help ensure you remain in compliance with Westchester County's pay transparency law requirements.