Salary Range Transparency

A comprehensive guide
Current pay transparency legislation
Preparing for future pay transparency changes
Considering all factors
Utilizing PayParity® to ensure compliance

A comprehensive guide

The workforce is undergoing a significant shift due to new legislation mandating pay transparency. Many states across the US are requiring employers to disclose salary ranges in job postings, increasing the likelihood of employees receiving equal pay for equal work. This legislation encourages employers to be more transparent with prospective and current employees, creating a fairer and more equitable work environment.

Salary range transparency, fair rewards, and recognition, and the use of specialized pay equity software can benefit companies in numerous ways. These practices can lead to improved financial and customer service outcomes, outstanding people outcomes, and greater innovation and adaptability.

Research shows that job postings that include pay information in the title have a cost-per-click advantage of up to 35%. According to Josh Bersin, companies that use specialized technology for pay equity analysis, such as PayParity®, are 3.2 times more likely to engage and retain their employees and 7 times more likely to attract the right talent. Additionally, companies that prioritize fair and equitable rewards and recognition are five times more likely to achieve exceptional financial and customer results and outstanding people outcomes. These statistics highlight the significance of pay transparency and equity practices and the benefits they can bring to companies that prioritize them.

Our Salary Range Transparency guide can help employers stay compliant within cities and states that have already enacted pay transparency laws. Even if your company doesn't operate in these areas, there's still much to gain from preparing for pay transparency. With more laws likely to emerge, now is the time to establish your company as an equitable one and lead the way in fair pay.

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salary range transparency

Current pay transparency legislation

California was the first state to enact its initial pay transparency legislation back in 2018. Since then, several other cities and states have passed their own pay transparency laws. Each has its own nuances and requirements. See the chart below to understand the growing pay transparency trend taking place across the country.

U.S. location

California

Pay transparency requirement

Under California Labor Code §432.3, as of January 1, 2023, employers, both public and private, with 15+ employees must publish pay ranges, e.g., salary or hourly wage ranges, in all job postings.

All employers must disclose pay ranges, upon reasonable request (after applicant completed initial interview with employer), to a job applicant. Upon request by a current employee, all employers must disclose pay ranges for their position.

Who is protected?
Public and Private Employers with 15+ employees

Effective date
January 1, 2023

Colorado

Pay transparency requirement

Under the state's active Equal Pay Equal Work Act, all employers, public or private, must disclose the following in job postings: hourly/annual pay or hourly/pay ranges, benefit information, and other bonuses or compensation associated with the job (Note, no requirement to have a job posting.)

All employers must also make reasonable efforts to post or otherwise make known all promotional opportunities to all current employees on or prior to making promotion decision.

Who is protected?
Public and Private Employers

Effective date
January 1, 2021

Connecticut

Pay transparency requirement

Under Connecticut's HB 6380, employers, public or private, with at least one employee within the state, must disclose salary ranges to a job applicant upon earliest of (i) applicant's request or (ii) before/during time of job offer.

All employers must also disclose salary ranges for internal promotions and/or position changes for current employees, or when requested by an employee.

Who is protected?
Public and Private Employers

Effective date
October 1, 2021

Maryland

Nevada

Pay transparency requirement

Under Nevada's SB 293, all employers, public and private, must disclose the wage or salary range or the rate for the position to applicants who have completed an interview for the position.

All employers must also disclose wage or salary range or rate for the promotion/transfer to current employees who have applied, interviewed or have been offered the promotion/transfer and requested wage or salary range or rate information.

Who is protected?
Public and Private Employers

Effective date
October 1, 2021

Ithaca, New York

New York City, New York

Pay transparency requirement

Under New York City Council's bill number 1208-2018, public and private employers with 4+ employees (including independent contractors) must disclose minimum/maximum annual salary or hourly wage in job posting.

This applies to new hires, new transfers, and new promotion positions, including remote positions to the extent the position can and will be performed, at least in part, in New York City.

Who is protected?
Public and Private Employers with 4+ employees

Effective date
November 1, 2022

Westchester County, New York

Pay transparency requirement

Under Westchester County Human Rights Law §700.03, public or private employers with 4+ employees must disclose minimum/maximum hourly wage or base annual salary range or rate of pay in job posting.

This applies to new hires, new transfers, and new promotion positions, including remote positions, to the extent the position is required to be performed in whole or in part within Westchester County.

Who is protected?
Public and Private Employers with 4+ employees

Effective date
November 6, 2022

New York

Pay transparency requirement

Under New York's Labor Code §194(b), private employers with 4+ employees must disclose compensation or range of compensation (minimum/maximum annual salary or hourly range of compensation), and description of job, promotion or transfer opportunity, if such description exists, when advertising a job, promotion or transfer opportunity advertisement.

Who is protected?
Private Employers with 4+ employees

Effective date
September 17, 2023

Jersey City, New Jersey

Cincinnati, Ohio

Pay transparency requirement

Under Cincinnati, OH Ordinance 83, Municipal Code Ch. 804, upon reasonable request by a job applicant but after being provided a conditional offer of employment, private employers and the City of Cincinnati with 15+ employees, must provide the pay range for the position to job applicant.

Who is protected?
Private Employers and The City of Cincinnati with 15+ employees (only applies to the city, it does not include any other local, state or federal government)

Effective date
March 13, 2020

Toledo, Ohio

Pay transparency requirement

Under Toledo Municipal Code Ch. 768, upon reasonable request by a job applicant but after being provided a conditional offer of employment, private employers and the City of Toledo with 15+ employees, must provide the pay range for the position to job applicant.

Who is protected?
Private Employers and The City of Toledo with 15+ employees (only applies to the city, it does not include any other local, state or federal government)

Effective date
June 25, 2020

Rhode Island

Pay transparency requirement

Under RI Gen. Ass. Law 28, private employers must disclose wage range upon applicant's request.

All employers must also disclose to a current employee their wage range for their current position (i) at the time of hire and after moving into a new position, if applicable or (ii) upon request during employment.

Who is protected?
Private Employers

Effective date
January 1, 2023

Washington State

Pay transparency requirement

Under WA's Equal Pay and Opportunities Act, employers, public or private, with 15+ employees must disclose wage range or salary range and a general description of all the benefits and other compensation offered in all job postings.

Additionally, upon request, public and private employers with 15+ employees must provide current employees who are internally transferred or promoted to a new position the salary range or wage rangescale of the new position.

Preparing for future pay transparency changes

Instead of waiting for the inevitable to happen, many employers outside the mandated jurisdictions have taken action. Moreover, for employers with multi-state operational employers, the patchwork of pay transparency laws must be addressed. This means more and more employers are incorporating pay transparency for current and prospective employees into their hiring process. This can help establish employers as forward-thinking and be attractive to prospective employees especially in the current competitive labor market.

Changing how you address pay discussions and disclosures may give your organization an edge. Instead of waiting until the last minute when a particular pay transparency law applies to your organization, why not set your organization apart ahead of time?

Considering all factors

Compliance can be tricky. If your organization is not physically located in one of the previously mentioned locations, it doesn't necessarily mean transparency laws don't affect you. With more remote positions available, and for organizations with multi-state operations, organizations are increasingly employing people from across the nation. This means that the location where your employees live determines whether your organization is bound to comply with pay transparency requirements. This is why evaluating pay range for all current positions as well as addressing any discrepancies is crucial.

Utilizing PayParity® to ensure compliance

Achieving compliance is easy with the right software. A pay equity audit can help your business identify any pay disparities that may be present in certain departments or specific job positions.

Pay equity software can help your organization comply with pay transparency laws. PayParity provides pay equity auditing and ongoing monitoring to identify pay disparities that may be present in the following demographics:

Gender
Race/ethnicity
Age
Disability

A pay equity audit can also prevent pay inequities from occurring in the future, which lessens legal risk. Pay transparency is beneficial not just to employees, but also to employers. It helps streamline the hiring process, makes positions more appealing, and decreases the odds of declined job offers. It's also appealing to prospective employees, investors, as well as stakeholders.

What's more is that PayParity includes the Salary Range Finder^® -- the perfect tool for helping companies confidently share pay ranges in job postings, as required by several states and cities across the U.S.

The Salary Range Finder retrieves internal PayParity pay equity audit data and overlays it against built-in external labor market data provided by industry-leader Lightcast^TM. The software solution then generates an equitable salary range for a desired job and the relevant geographical location.

Salary Range Finder is the perfect platform for helping Total Rewards, Compensation, HR, and Recruiting professionals ensure their job pay bands are fair and competitive, before publicly sharing them. The tool also helps to address the unintended consequence of wage compression.

To learn more about how PayParity and the Salary Range Finder can help you comply with pay transparency laws, schedule a meeting below.

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Pay Transparency is a rapidly evolving area. This guide is meant to give a general overview of each state's pay transparency laws. While we make efforts to keep the guide up to date, it may not include all the latest developments.