NYS Client Alert - Pay Transparency Law

NYS Client Alert - Pay Transparency

Effective September 17, 2023, employers will be subject to the New York State Pay Transparency law. Pursuant to the new law, employers who advertise a job, promotion, or transfer opportunity must include: (1) the compensation or a range of compensation for such job, promotion, or transfer opportunity; and (2) the job description for such job, promotion, or transfer opportunity, if such description exists. In addition to the disclosure requirements, the law contains an explicit non-retaliation provision.

The law expands upon the meaning of the term “advertise” by defining it as “to make available to a pool of potential applicants for internal or public viewing, including electronically, a written description of an employment opportunity.”

Covered employers must include in any advertisement for a job, promotion, or transfer opportunity the minimum and maximum annual salary or hourly range of compensation that the employer in good faith believes to be accurate at the time of the posting. The law requires employers to also disclose the applicable job description (if one exists). The law defines “range of compensation” as the “minimum and maximum annual salary or hourly range of compensation for a job, promotion, or transfer opportunity that the employer in good faith believes to be accurate at the time of the posting of an advertisement for such opportunity.”

Notably, the law applies to remote positions physically performed outside of New York that report to a New York supervisor, office, or work site. The standard is no longer whether work “can or will be performed” in New York State. Instead, the law will now apply to advertisements for “a job, promotion, or transfer opportunity that will physically be performed, at least in part, in the state of New York, including a job, promotion, or transfer opportunity that will physically be performed outside of New York but reports to a supervisor, office, or other work site in New York.”

New York employers should ensure that their human resources and compensation departments, as well as third-party employment agencies, are aware of the new requirements. Employers should also take steps to determine and document compensation ranges using existing data or projecting figures. Should you have any questions regarding the new law, please contact Stephanie Horn.