Pay Transparency Laws

Over the past few years, new pay transparency laws have gone into effect in different states and municipalities. Pay transparency laws come in a variety of different flavors; some require release of pay data to state authorities, while others make it illegal for companies to ask about pay history during the interview process. Now, most notably, we’re seeing pay transparency laws requiring employers to disclose the pay range of an open job within the job posting itself.

Disclosing salary within job postings has many benefits as described by this study including:

1. 79% of applicants are more likely to apply for a job if the ad lists the salary range, and
2. 81% said they're more likely to apply if the company is transparent about its perks and benefits.

At the same time, some potential applicants will choose to not apply if the listed range is below their expectations—this still helps TA teams, since it keeps the candidate pool full of applicants that know and are aligned with the given salary.

Not all pay transparency laws are created equally

Pay transparency does not always mean that an employer must include salary in the job description (what we refer to as salary disclosure). Many jurisdictions have pay transparency laws that can mean anything from:

• describing pay data by gender to state authorities
• giving applicants the right to ask about salary during the interview process
• prohibiting employers from asking candidates about prior salary

At Datapeople, our focus on indicating pay ranges in job descriptions. Here are some of the locations that require (or will soon require) salary information in job posts.

Not all ranges are created equally

While candidates generally indicate that they're more likely to apply to jobs that list a salary range, a recent study indicates they are less likely to apply if the given range is very wide: large ranges tend to make candidates view the employer as "dishonest" and "disingenuous."

The same study found that candidates were less attracted to companies if a wide salary range was accompanied by a statement saying that final pay would depend on the candidate's qualifications, and more attracted to companies if a wide salary range was accompanied by a statement saying that final pay would depend on the candidate's geographic location. All of this to say: it's not just including salary information that matters; it's including a reasonable range and being careful about how you explain it.