Partner LaKeisha M.A. Caton, who is a member of the firm's Labor + Employment practice, sat down with Reworked to discuss the new pay transparency laws that employers will soon be required to enact. New York City is part of a growing list of cities and states that require specific, relevant, "good faith" salary ranges for all advertised jobs.
"Whether it is an annual salary or an hourly pay rate, employers will have to provide a good faith amount that they are willing to pay an employee for this position," said LaKeisha Caton, an attorney with Pryor Cashman LLP in NYC. And those ranges must be relatively specific. A post can't say "up to $100,000" or provide a ridiculously broad range ($50,000 to $1 million) "because that's not helpful to applicants," Caton said. It must include a specific amount that will be part of the job offer or a range that realistically represents what an employee would be paid based on their skills and experience.
Reworked notes that the new trend towards posted salary ranges started in California in 2016 as part of a broader effort to close the gender pay gap and address pay inequality. New York City joins Cincinnati, California, Colorado, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Washington among many others embracing the move towards transparency.