Starting November 1, 2022, employers advertising jobs in New York City must include a good faith salary range for every job, promotion, and transfer opportunity advertised. The New York City Pay Transparency Law amended the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL), making it an unlawful discriminatory practice to post any job listing that does not include the minimum and maximum salary or hourly wage offered for the position.
Who is covered under the provisions?
All employers that have four or more employees or one or more domestic workers are covered by the NYCHRL, including this new provision of the law. Owners and individual employers count towards the four employees, and the four employees do not need to work in the same location, and they do not need to all work in New York City. As long as one of the employees works in New York City, the workplace is covered.
Employment Agencies are also covered by the new law, regardless of their size. As such, employment agencies must ensure that any job listings they promote or seek to fill comply with the new salary transparency requirements.
Temporary Help Firm Exception: The new law does not apply to temporary help firms seeking applicants to join their pool of available workers.
Which job listings are covered by the new law?
Any advertisement for a job, promotion, or transfer opportunity that would be performed in New York City is covered by the new law. An “advertisement” is a written description of an available job, promotion, or transfer opportunity that is publicized to a pool of potential applicants. Such advertisements are covered regardless of the medium in which they are disseminated. Covered listings include postings on internal bulletin boards, internet advertisements, printed flyers distributed at job fairs, and newspaper advertisements. The law does not prohibit employers from hiring without using an advertisement or require employers to create an advertisement in order to hire.
What information must be included in covered job advertisements?
Employers must state the minimum and maximum salary they, in good faith, believe at the time of the posting, they are willing to pay for the advertised job, promotion, or transfer opportunity. “Good faith” means the salary range the employer honestly believes at the time they are listing the job advertisement that they are willing to pay the successful applicant(s).
The range cannot be open-ended. For example, “$15 per hour and up” or “maximum $50,000 per year” would not be consistent with the new requirements. If an employer has no flexibility in the salary they are offering, the minimum and maximum salary may be identical, for example, “$20 per hour.”
Salary includes the base annual or hourly wage or rate of pay, regardless of the frequency of payment. For example, it would include an hourly wage of $15 per hour or an annual salary of $50,000 per year.
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, such as paid sick or vacation days, leaves of absence or sabbaticals, other retirement benefits, overtime, commissions, tips, bonuses or other employer-provided meals or lodging.
Next Steps
In preparing to comply with NYC’s Salary Transparency Law requirements, employers should:
- Consider conducting a privileged pay equity audit of their workforce and making related pay adjustments for any discrepancies as needed.
- Determine the salary ranges for all existing positions.
- Ensure that all job postings include the required pay scale information.
- Pay special attention to similar pay transparency laws currently in effect or that will soon take effect in other jurisdictions if they have multistate operations.
- Consider adopting a national policy addressing salary ranges to comport with the growing number of jurisdictions with pay transparency laws if they have multistate operations.
- Ensure any records maintenance policies are updated to comply with the law’s recordkeeping requirements.
Guardian HR has partnered with ThinkWhy to help clients analyze salary data by position (standard and blended roles).
Below is the brochure outlining their services for your reference:
For additional information, please visit the Forms Library in the client portal and access the folders Compensation and Payroll / New York. Additional information on the reporting requirement can also be found at https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cchr/media/pay-transparency.page
For clients with questions regarding this topic, please contact your Guardian HR dedicated Manager.
If you wish to become a client of Guardian HR and get access to all our resources, including your own dedicated consultant and our team of employment attorneys, please contact us at sales@guardian-hr.com or call us at 888-373-4724.