Salary transparency law goes into effect in New York

If you work in New York City, you can celebrate Marked-Down-Halloween-Candy Day by comparing your salary to your future coworkers’. Today a new city law goes into effect that requires companies with four or more employees to disclose a specific pay range in every job posting.

Several states including Colorado, California, and Washington have already passed similar transparency laws, with more on the horizon.

Supporters of salary transparency laws say the rules will help close racial and gender pay gaps. Even businesses that initially pushed back against the NYC law, calling it another hurdle in a tight labor market, are now submitting to the inevitable pay transparency wave.

It doesn’t matter where a job is posted: Internal or external sites, flyers, classified ads—even if a job opening is yelled out in the middle of Times Square by the town crier, it will need a salary range. Indeed said it won’t post any NYC-based roles that don’t include salary ranges as of today.

The law is expected to affect 4 million private-sector employees: It covers full- and part-time roles, internships, and independent contractors.

Even if you don’t live in NYC, you’ll start to see changes

If an NYC-based company is hiring for a remote role outside of the Big Apple, it won’t technically need to include the salary info. But companies hiring all over the country are now likely to slap salary ranges on every job. Corporations like American Express and Citigroup have already started doing just that. And a majority of workplaces are seriously considering it, according to a survey from consulting firm Willis Towers Watson.

There may be some growing pains…companies are preparing for a surge of raise requests after employees get a clearer picture of what their bosses are willing to pay for someone to do their jobs.—MM