A growing number of jurisdictions require pay ranges in job postings, restrict inquiries into salary history, and impose reporting obligations. These interact with longstanding equal pay law.
Posting requirements typically require a good faith range and, in some places, a general description of benefits and other compensation. They usually apply to remote roles that could be performed in the jurisdiction, which extends their reach well beyond employers located there.
Salary history bans prohibit asking about or relying on prior pay, on the premise that it perpetuates disparities. Voluntary disclosure by an applicant may be usable in some jurisdictions and not others.
Equal pay statutes increasingly require equal pay for substantially similar work rather than the narrower equal work standard, and narrow the defences — often to a bona fide factor other than sex that is job-related and consistent with business necessity, with the employer bearing the burden.
Geographic comparison. Some statutes compare across an employer’s locations rather than within a single establishment.
The audit. A privileged compensation analysis, controlling for legitimate factors, run before a posting requirement forces ranges into public view. Publishing ranges that reveal internal inequities without having addressed them is how these laws generate claims.