New York City recently passed a law requiring that job postings state a minimum and maximum starting salary for any advertised job, promotion, or transfer opportunity. Wage transparency laws like New York City's deepen the connection between several aspects of workforce management best practices. While the law simply requires job postings to include salary ranges, this requirement raises the stakes on pay equity, so much so, that it behooves employers to maintain defensible pay structures, employ sound performance management practices, have up-to-date job descriptions, and maintain all other necessary documentation to support their compensation decisions.

New York City's law, which goes into effect on May 15, 2022, amends the city's Human Rights Law to include a new discriminatory practice: failing to include salary ranges in job postings. The law requires job postings to include a salary range "from the lowest to the highest salary the employer in good faith believes at the time of the posting it would pay for the advertised job, promotion, or transfer opportunity." NYC Admin. Code §8-107 (32). The law does not define "salary," so absent further regulatory clarification, all positions, regardless if paid as salary or on an hourly or other basis, are presumed subject to the law. New York City's law applies to "employer agents and employment agencies," unlike Colorado's law, discussed below, which is strictly limited to the hiring employer.

A Growing Trend. New York City's law follows from Colorado's robust pay transparency law, which requires employers to disclose salary range as well as benefit information in job postings, and obligates employers to post internal openings (including the mandated disclosures) before filling the role. Colorado has taken the position that its law applies to nationwide remote job postings by Colorado employers, and Colorado employers who post national remote positions excluding Colorado applicants violate the law.