KMK Law Management Rights Blog

A recent trend in labor and employment law has been the passage of pay transparency laws. These are laws that require employers to either disclose salary ranges for posted jobs to applicants who request the information or in some cases, to all applicants in the actual job posting. At present, there are eight states and a handful of municipalities that have passed these laws but a lot more have pending legislation so I would expect to see more laws passed in the next couple of years. 

The states are:

• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Maryland
• Nevada
• New York
• Rhode Island
• Washington

Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and South Carolina have pending legislation. Several municipalities also have laws on the books, including Cincinnati and Toledo, Ohio, Jersey City, New Jersey, and a few in New York, including New York City.

These laws present a problem for employers with operations in multiple states because they are not necessarily the same. Some of the laws require disclosures in the job postings while others only require disclosures at certain points in the hiring process or if the applicant requests the information. Another significant issue is what to do about remote workers. The question is - if you post for a remote job, do you need to comply with the pay transparency laws in light of the fact that someone from a jurisdiction with such a law may apply. The answer is that many of these laws are considered to apply to remote work, at least according to the enforcement agencies involved. 

Employers should take some time to review their compliance strategies for pay transparency laws, particularly if they are posting for remote positions. 

Listen in to find out how your business can avoid problems with pay transparency laws.

You can listen here.