NYC Employers Will Now Be Required To Include Salary Ranges In Job Listings

The New York City Council passed new legislation earlier this year that requires employers to include a specific salary range (minimum & maximum) in any published job listings. The only exceptions to the groundbreaking pay transparency law, which was supposed to officially go into effect this May but now has been delayed to November, are companies with less than four employees or temporary hiring firms.

The bill was first created by former City Council member Helen Rosenthal, who championed the concrete way to help bridge the pay gap between men, women and other minority groups. It was passed by the council 41-7 in December, but Mayor Eric Adams had until January 14 to veto the bill if desired. He did not, so it will continue on to become law.

It was aimed to go into effect as of May 15, but due to new amendments passed on April 28, businesses will not be required to start following it until November 1, 2022. According to Forbes, these new City Council amendments include:

• adding coverage for hourly-paid workers in the pay transparency law
• clarifying how remote workers are affected (“Covered employers should follow the new law when advertising for positions that can or will be performed, in whole or in part, in New York City, whether from an office, in the field, or remotely from the employee’s home,” the New York City Commission on Human Rights stated)
• confirming there will be no penalty for employers for a first violation (within the first 30 days)

If any company does not disclose a range in their posting, they could be fined up to $125,000 and it would be declared an “unlawful discriminatory practice” under the New York City Human Rights Law. Still, as written above, there will be a short grace period for initial violations.

It stands to be one of the most comprehensive laws of its kind thus far, with only Colorado recently enacting a comparable mandate (and a similar bill has been introduced on the state level in NY, but has not moved forward as of yet).

Some business groups have complained that the requirement could hurt the local economy, being difficult for businesses to carry out and could make NYC appear “unfriendly” to companies.