COMP NEWS – With New York having just put a new salary transparency law into effect, more than half of all jobs on the popular job board site Indeed now have salary ranges listed, according to a recent report.

The Empire State just rolled out its salary transparency law last weekend, joining a handful of other states and municipalities requiring employers to disclose proposed pay on job postings.

As of August, the Indeed Hiring Lab reports half of all U.S. job postings on its platform advertised at least some employer-provided salary information — marking a record high.

Under the new law, all New York employers with at least four workers will need to post salary ranges on external advertisements for job roles — and same goes for internal postings for existing employees interested in a promotion or transfer.

This will also apply to remote employees of New York businesses who work outside of the state, but won’t be enforced for government agencies or temporary help firms.

While seven states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Nevada, Rhode Island and Washington — have already passed pay transparency laws, another 16 states and the District of Columbia have been considering similar bills this year, reports the National Women’s Law Center.

According to Indeed, Colorado — the first state to implement pay disclosure laws — is considered the most salary-transparent state, with 81% of postings featuring salary data.

The move towards pay transparency has upset some employers, who worry that employees will leave them for bigger paydays at competitors. But labor advocates refute these assertions, saying that employees deserve transparency when negotiating for a new job.

Some companies are pushing back by advertising extremely wide pay ranges on job postings instead — making it extremely difficult for job seekers and employees to determine their worth or whether they should move jobs.

Pay transparency laws can also vary across the country, which means employees and employers need to do their research first.

“The devil is in the details,” Beth Ann Lennon, a labor and employment lawyer at Sherman & Howard, based in Denver, Colorado, told Moneywise last year.

Some states require salary ranges on job postings, while others only provide this information upon request or during the application process.

And Lennon says while the intent behind these laws may be to encourage more open dialogue around pay and to address pay inequity, she adds, “Whether that intent is being accomplished, I think, is more of the open question.”

She offers the example of an employee negotiating for a higher salary in a state like Colorado that bars employers from using past wagesto determine the employee’s current salary.

“There are laws telling you ‘Don’t talk to your employees in the way that you historically have’ — as it relates to what are your pay expectations, what have you made in your last jobs? That kind of back and forth sometimes really helps an employee advocate for themselves,” Lennon explains.

“And so one of those tools that an employee may have previously had is gone.”

For anyone who’s on the hunt for a new job, Johnson recommends doing your research and looking into your state’s laws before switching jobs or trying to negotiate a raise.

To read more about salary ranges on Indeed and salary transparency laws, click here.

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