Pay Transparency Laws by State: Salary Ranges in Job Postings

Pay transparency laws by state and city

A pay transparency law, in the hiring sense, makes an employer print the pay for a job in the job ad. This table lists only the jurisdictions whose statute or enforcing agency we read on October 23, 2026: 14 states, the District of Columbia and 2 cities. It is not a count of every place with a rule. We could not open the official sources for Nevada or Rhode Island that day, and we did not read the smaller city and county ordinances, so a place missing from the table may still have a law.

Two patterns jump out. First, the headcount floors are all over the map: Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland and the District reach an employer with a single employee there, while Hawaii starts at 50. Second, the ad often has to carry more than pay. Colorado, Washington, Minnesota, Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut also want a general description of benefits, and Colorado wants the date applications close.

Which law applies to the job you post

The law that applies follows the job, not your headquarters. A 20-person company in Texas that posts a remote role open to anyone in the country is posting into every one of these jurisdictions at once. Colorado's labor division put it bluntly in a 2021 letter to employers: excluding Coloradans from a remote job is “a preference among applicants”, not a description of where the work can be done, so it does not remove the pay disclosure duty.

New York draws the line at real presence. Its Department of Labor says occasional trips into the state for a meeting or a conference do not make a job one performed in New York, and a remote job is not covered only because the direct supervisor happens to live in New York when the company and its leadership are elsewhere.

What counts as a valid pay range

Across the laws we read, a range has two ends and both are honest. New York's Department of Labor says a range “cannot be open-ended” and gives “$20+ an hour” as the example of what is not allowed. Minnesota writes the same rule into its statute, and Illinois rejects “$40,000 and up”, “up to $60,000” and “starts at $50,000 depending on experience” as too vague. If you will pay one fixed rate, New York, New York City, Minnesota and Washington let you post that single figure.

Good faith is the other half. California asks for a good-faith estimate of the range you reasonably expect to pay at hire; Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia and Connecticut use good-faith wording too, and Virginia's statute says any review of good faith will consider “the breadth of such wage or salary range.” Illinois warns that an extremely broad range may raise compliance questions and suggests keeping a record of why the range is as wide as it is.

Commission and tips get their own rules. Vermont lets a commission-paid job say so instead of giving a range and makes a tipped job give its base wage; New York asks you to say when a job is commission-based; Massachusetts and California expect the piece-rate or commission range you reasonably expect to pay.

Benefits and other pay in the posting

A general description is short. It names what comes with the job, not what each benefit is worth: health and dental cover, a retirement plan and its match, paid leave, a bonus plan. New Jersey's Department of Labor gives the wrong version too: a posting may not get by with phrases like “great benefits offered” or “health insurance and more.” Illinois says pay that varies, such as tips, commission or bonuses, can be named without an estimated amount.

California sits at the other end. Its Labor Commissioner says bonuses, tips and other benefits do not have to be posted; only the salary or hourly range does. Writing the benefits line anyway costs nothing and satisfies the stricter rows.

When there is no posting: pay on request

Posting rules only bite when you post. Plenty of small-employer hiring happens by referral or a direct message, and several of these laws close that gap: if the candidate never saw an ad, you owe them the range before you talk money, or as soon as they ask. Illinois says this holds even when the candidate came through a recruiter you hired.

Penalties and cure periods

Several of these laws give a first-time employer room to fix a posting before money changes hands. Washington and Massachusetts wrote cure periods with an end date, Virginia lets an employer correct a posting within 15 business days of a written complaint before an applicant can sue, and Cleveland gives 90 days after a finding. The money grows with repeat violations, and some laws count each job as its own violation.

Laws that start later

• DEDelaware

  Pay or pay range and a general description of benefits in internal and external postings. Covered: 26 or more employees; Delaware jobs and remote jobs offered by a Delaware-based employer.

  19 Del. C. § 709C (HS 2 for HB 105, signed 2025-09-26), source

  September 26, 2027

• ColumbusColumbus, Ohio

  Pay transparency in job postings, § 2335.03(C). Covered: Set by Columbus City Code ch. 2335.

  Ordinance 2898-2025 (enforcement deferred to this date), source

  January 1, 2027

Delaware's law was signed on September 26, 2025 and takes effect two years later. Until then, a first offense there will draw a written warning and later ones $500 to $10,000 each, counting one job as one violation however often it is reposted. Columbus has passed its posting rule but will not enforce it before January 1, 2027.

Questions employers ask