Beginning on November 1, most New York City employers will be forced to include the pay range in all job postings, promotions, and transfer opportunities. This legislation, which affects 4 million private-sector employees in New York, will promote salary transparency on the part of employers as a tool to address racial and gender wage discrepancies. The outcome will affect work within the United States and remote work.
Beginning on November 1, “employers advertising employment in New York City must publish a good faith compensation range for every job, promotion, and transfer opportunity posted,” where “good faith” refers to the salary the employer is willing to pay the successful applicant(s).
Employers must include the minimum and maximum wage offered for a certain position when posting it on an internal job board and external job search sites such as LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, and others. It also applies to any job description printed on a flyer, disseminated at a job fair, or submitted to classifieds in a newspaper.
The wage requirement is specific to base salary, whether yearly or hourly, but companies are not required to mention health insurance, paid time off, severance pay, overtime pay, commissions, tips, bonuses, stock, 401(k) matching, or other forms of compensation. Ranges must be specified and cannot be open-ended (e.g., $15 per hour and up).
The rule applies to businesses with at least four employees (including the owner or individual employer) and at least one New York City employee. It includes advertisements for full- or part-time employees, interns, domestic workers, independent contractors, and other workers protected by the New York City Human Rights Law.
Salary information must be given on job postings for any positions inside New York City, whether at an office, on the job site, or remotely from the employee’s home. This means that the legislation applies to enterprises outside New York City that wish to publish employment advertisements for remote work that could be performed anywhere in the United States, including New York City. On the other hand, a New York City-based employer will not be required to comply with the rule if they specifically advertise a job outside the city.
Before the November 1 deadline, several prominent employers began including pay ranges in job postings. According to Tony Guadagni, senior research principal at the consulting firm Gartner, larger firms are more likely to have the infrastructure and resources to formalize their pay scales, and displaying them on job advertisements will “happen overnight.”
Small and medium-sized organizations may require more time to reach full speed. If a corporation is not abiding by the legislation, job seekers and employees can register complaints or anonymous tips with the city’s Commission on Human Rights, which may launch an investigation. Individuals with claims against their current employer may bring a civil lawsuit.
If a company violates the law, it may be required to pay monetary damages to impacted employees, revise its job postings, create or revise its compensation practices, offer training, and take additional corrective action. The Commission will not assess a civil penalty for a first complaint if the employer demonstrates that the breach has been corrected within 30 days. In the absence of compliance, businesses may be subject to civil penalties of up to $250,000
According to experts, it is just a matter of time before salary transparency rules mandating salary ranges in job postings become the norm throughout the United States. A similar law already exists in Colorado and will be implemented in California and the remainder of New York State by the end of the year. Because so many organizations are headquartered in or have a presence in New York City, some businesses may want to update their rules across the board, even in cases where compliance still needs to be needed for consistency.
Worldwide salary transparency rules are overwhelmingly well-liked by workers, even though they can be an administrative burden for employers. Legal regulation may be required to convince business CEOs to relinquish some leverage to the public. With this coming into effect in the US, it is time for Asian countries and India, as a burgeoning economy, to look into making salary transparent. ♦
