The Pay transparency law: here is what you should know if you employ workers in New York City.
November 1, 2022 – you fall under the Pay transparency law if you employee workers in the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, or Staten Island.
If your organization meets certain requirements, you may be required to include in your job listings the minimum and maximum salary that you offer for any position located within these five boroughs. The range for the listed maximum and minimum salary would extend from the lowest salary to the highest salary that you honestly think you would pay for the job, promotion, or transfer that you advertised.
The law was enacted on January 15, 2022 and was amended on May 12, 2022.
WHO SHOULD APPLY THE NEW REQUIREMENTS
Businesses
Your business falls under the new salary transparency requirements if you meet the following requirements:
- You have at least four employees or at least one domestic worker in total, and
- The domestic worker or one of the employees is working out of the five boroughs.
The law applies to your business if at least one of the four employees or the domestic worker works in New York City. Not all four employees need to work in the same location, and they do not need to all work in New York City. To determine whether your business has at least 4 employees, you must count the owners and the individual employers.
Recruiting agencies
If you are running a recruiting agency, the new salary transparency law applies to your recruiting agency regardless of your size. As such, you must ensure that any job listings that you promote or seek to fill comply with the new salary transparency requirements.
Temporary staffing firms (i)
If you’re running a temporary staffing agency that is seeking applicants to join your pool of available workers, you’re exempt from this legislation. This is because you already provided this information after interviews in compliance with the NY State Wage Theft Prevention Act.
However, the employees of the staffing agency that you’re running fall under the new salary transparency requirements.
The Pay transparency law requirements
Type of job listings that the new law covers
The new salary transparency requirements cover any advertisement for job, promotion, or transfer opportunity that would be performed in the five boroughs. The job posting is covered whether the posting is on internal bulletin boards, internet advertisements, printed flyers distributed at job fairs, or newspaper advertisements.
Note: The law does not prohibit you from hiring without using an advertisement. It doesn’t require you to create an advertisement to hire.
Positions covered
The new law covers advertisement for positions that can or will be performed, in whole or in part, in one of the five boroughs that form New York City. The law applies to all positions: in the office, in the field, or remotely from the employee’s home.
Workers covered
The new transparency law covers all type of postings:
- Full-time or part-time employees;
- Interns;
- Domestic workers;
- Independent contractors; or
- Any other category of worker protected by the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL).
How to write your next job advertisement
Minimum and maximum salary
You must include in the job ad both a minimum and a maximum salary. You cannot offer an open-ended salary range. Advertisements that cover multiple jobs, promotions, or transfer opportunities can include salary ranges that are specific to each opportunity. If you have no flexibility in the salary you’re offering, the minimum and maximum salary may be identical.
Example 1: a job posting that would indicate “$15 per hour and up” or “maximum $50,000 per year” would not be consistent with the new requirements.
Example 2: a job posting that would indicate “$20 per hour” would be consistent with the new requirements.
The salary includes the base annual or hourly wage or rate of pay, regardless of the frequency of payment.
Example 3: a job ad that would include an hourly wage of $15 per hour or an annual salary of $50,000 per year would be consistent with the new requirements.
Bonuses and benefits
The salary does not include other forms of compensation or benefits offered in connection with the advertised job, promotion, or transfer opportunity, such as:
- Health, life, or other employer-provided insurance;
- Paid or unpaid time off work (paid sick or vacation days, leaves of absence, or sabbaticals…);
- The availability of or contributions towards retirement or savings funds, such as 401(k) plans or employer funded pension plans;
- Severance pay;
- Overtime pay;
- Other forms of comp.
Enforcement
You may have to pay civil penalties of up to $250,000 if:
- You’re in violation for the first time, have been informed to fix the issue but you didn’t fix it, or
- You continue to be in violations, after the first violation.
Other states have passed a pay transparency law like the New York City law. They include:
> California. They signed a pay transparency bill on September 27, 2022.
> Colorado. They are the first state to require pay ranges to be included in job postings.
> Connecticut (CT).
> Maryland (MD).
> Rhode Island (RI).
> Washington (WA).
CT, MD, RI, and WA generally don’t require the salary as part of the job posting. Instead, employers must provide the range upon request or at the time an offer is made.
The Pay Transparency Law aims at achieving real gender pay equity. Median earnings for women who worked full-time, year-round in the past 12 months is 18% less than the median earnings for men. That means for every dollar that men earn, women earn $0.82. However, progress has been made: in 1960 women working full-time, year-round were making 39.30% less than what men working full-time, year-round were making.
The pay gap in the United States is comparable to the global pay gap. On September 18, 2022, the International Labor Organization (ILO) found that on average, women globally are paid about 20 per cent less than men.