Six years ago, when pay transparency became law in California, I was optimistic. I thought the whole concept really empowered job seekers. It is next to impossible to effectively negotiate a role without having any idea of the salary range. By offering that intel on job postings, we could give everyone a better chance of being paid equitably for the work regardless of if they’ve ever been underpaid before.
I was naive. It clicked when I met someone who was hired to enforce pay transparency in Colorado at a bar. No lie. They informed me, politely, that whatever I thought was happening probably wasn’t. While there were fines and figures set by the state, all the law was accomplishing at that point was requiring organizations add made up numbers to their job post. Enforcement? She literally laughed when I asked.
As much as we have good intentions with pay transparency, we haven’t made it that far. That’s why for the next few weeks, I’ll be doing a multi-week series on pay transparency. Subscribe here to get it delivered right to your inbox. I’ll be covering how pay impacts job post conversion, how to create a pay philosophy vs another useless range, and why everyone is so weird about “transparency” and “money” being in the same sentence. But first, let’s look at the new state laws around pay transparency in 2025.
New Pay Transparency Laws in 2025
Every year we cover the new pay transparency laws so if you’d like the latest list as of 2024, you can read that here. In 2025, five additional states—Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Vermont—will implement pay transparency requirements, bringing the total to 18 states and Washington, D.C. A handful have already passed laws that will go into effect in 2026.
Pay Transparency By State as of January 2025:
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New York
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
- Washington
- Washington, D.C.
This transparency trend has gone global, too. In the European Union, the Pay Transparency Directive requires employers to provide salary ranges in job postings and disclose pay gaps by 2026. Australia is set to implement workplace reforms in January 2025 that strengthen pay reporting obligations, particularly for gender equity. Canada has also taken steps, with provinces like British Columbia mandating salary range disclosures in job advertisements.
What’s The Risk Of Not Disclosing Salary Ranges In Job Postings?
Here in the US, ignoring these new mandated salary disclosures in job postings can lead to fines ranging from $250 up to $10,000 for employers that are repeat offenders. Use tools like Ongig to stay compliant. With their tool, you can see at a glance from the dashboard which jobs are compliant or not based on location information. I love that they built this into the tool. See that feature for yourself here.
There’s an emotional component, too. One we can’t measure and that’s trust. The reality is that when people know you’re willingly breaking the law to avoid being transparent about pay, that’s a red flag. No trust on day one? Good luck on day 100 (if you get one with that person).
There’s also the risk of not getting people to apply at all. I’ve seen A/B tests where adding something as simple as “starts at $15/hour” increases qualified candidate application rates by 50% or more. Next week in this series, I’ll share the research I’ve uncovered on how pay ranges impact the volume of qualified applicants. Whether you’re impacted by these laws or not, I think you’ll see a pretty clear business case for getting more transparent about pay after this data.
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Other Posts In This Series:
