Pay transparency laws now require salary disclosures in job postings across eight states and dozens of cities. In 2026, these requirements expand further with lower employer thresholds, stricter enforcement, and new jurisdictions implementing transparency mandates.
This guide explains what changed in 2026, how to update job postings to comply with new requirements, and how automation ensures ongoing compliance as laws continue evolving.
Why Job Posting Rules Are Changing Nationwide
Pay transparency legislation represents one of the fastest-growing areas of employment law. What started with Colorado’s 2021 law has expanded to eight states and numerous cities, with more jurisdictions enacting requirements throughout 2026.
The momentum stems from wage gap concerns and employee demand for transparency. Research shows salary disclosure reduces discrimination, narrows pay gaps, and empowers candidates to negotiate fairly. Legislators across the country are responding with mandatory transparency requirements.
New for 2026: Several states lowered employer size thresholds, bringing more businesses under coverage. California’s law now firmly applies to employers with 15+ employees. New York covers those with just 4+ employees. States that previously exempted small employers are eliminating those carve-outs.
Enforcement has intensified significantly. State labor departments conducted only limited enforcement in early years, allowing businesses time to adjust. That grace period is over. California’s Labor Commissioner issued multiple high-profile citations in 2025, with penalties reaching $10,000 per violation. New York City’s Commission on Human Rights ramped up complaint investigations and proactive audits.
Private litigation is also emerging as a new risk. Some transparency laws create private rights of action, allowing employees and applicants to sue directly for violations. Class action complaints challenging systematic non-compliance across all job postings create massive exposure.
For employers posting jobs nationally—which includes most businesses using platforms like Indeed, LinkedIn, or even their own websites accessible nationwide—compliance with the strictest state requirements is effectively mandatory.
What 2026 Pay Transparency Laws Require in Job Ads
Salary ranges
The core requirement across all pay transparency laws is disclosing salary or wage compensation ranges in job advertisements.
- Minimum and maximum compensation: Laws require both the low and high end of the pay range the employer reasonably expects to pay. California explicitly prohibits artificially wide ranges designed to avoid meaningful disclosure. The range must reflect your actual budget and compensation philosophy for the role.
- Base pay vs. total compensation: Most states require only base salary or hourly wage disclosure, excluding bonuses, commissions, equity, or benefits from the range. However, if incentive pay is guaranteed or part of base compensation, it may need to be included.
- Good faith expectation standard: You must post the range you genuinely expect to pay, not a theoretical range spanning from minimum wage to executive compensation. Regulators evaluate whether ranges are realistic based on the position, your typical pay practices, and market rates.
- Updates for pay changes: If your budgeted range changes during the hiring process (e.g., you increase the range to attract better candidates), you must update the posting. Offering compensation outside the disclosed range creates violation risk.
- Hourly vs. salaried positions: Both must include ranges. Hourly positions show hourly rates (e.g., “$22-$28 per hour”). Salaried positions show annual compensation (e.g., “$65,000-$85,000 per year”). Don’t convert between formats in ways that obscure actual compensation.
Benefits disclosures
Several jurisdictions require benefits information beyond base salary:
- Colorado’s benefits description: Colorado requires a “general description of all benefits and other compensation” in addition to salary ranges. This includes health insurance, retirement plans, PTO, bonuses, commissions, profit-sharing, equity, and other compensation elements.
- What constitutes adequate disclosure: “Competitive benefits package” doesn’t satisfy requirements. Descriptions should identify specific benefits offered: “Health, dental, and vision insurance; 401(k) with 4% match; 15 days PTO; annual performance bonus up to 10% of salary.”
- Benefits variations by employee type: If benefits differ for full-time vs. part-time employees, or vary by location, clarify which benefits apply to the posted position.
- Optional benefits in other states: While most states don’t require benefits disclosure, providing this information voluntarily creates better candidate experience and demonstrates compensation competitiveness beyond base salary.
Remote job postings
Remote positions create unique pay transparency challenges because they’re accessible to applicants nationwide.
- Which state’s law applies: If a remote job posting is visible to applicants in pay transparency states, those states’ requirements generally apply—regardless of where your company is located. A Texas employer posting a remote role on LinkedIn must comply with California, New York, and other transparency laws if candidates from those states can apply.
- Location-based pay ranges: Many employers use geographic pay zones where compensation varies by cost of living. Remote jobs may require multiple disclosed ranges: “Salary range: $80,000-$100,000 for most U.S. locations; $95,000-$120,000 for high-cost areas including San Francisco, New York City, Seattle.”
- Restricting applications vs. complying: Some employers restrict remote positions to specific states to avoid compliance complexity. This limits candidate pools and may create discrimination concerns if applied inconsistently. Generally, complying with transparency requirements across all states is simpler than managing geographic restrictions.
- Fully remote vs. location-specific remote: A job requiring residence in a specific state only triggers that state’s requirements. A job allowing work from anywhere must comply with all applicable states’ laws.
How Requirements Differ by State
State-by-state variations require careful attention:
- California (15+ employees): Requires salary ranges in all job postings that “could be performed” in California, broadly interpreted to include remote jobs available to California applicants. Pay scale disclosure required upon employee request for current positions.
- New York (4+ employees): Applies to jobs that “will or can be performed” in New York, including remote positions. New York City’s law (also 4+ employees) has similar requirements with city enforcement.
- Colorado (1+ employees): All employers with any Colorado employees must disclose compensation and benefits for positions that could be performed in Colorado, whether in person or remotely.
- Washington (15+ employees): Requires disclosure for positions in Washington and requires employers to disclose ranges to current employees offered transfers or promotions.
- Connecticut (1+ employees): Requires disclosure upon request or before discussing compensation—not necessarily in the initial posting like other states.
- Maryland (15+ employees): Similar to California and New York, requires ranges in postings for positions in Maryland.
- Nevada (no threshold): Requires disclosure only upon applicant request after an interview, not in initial postings.
- Rhode Island (no specific threshold): Applies to employers subject to state equal pay laws, requiring disclosure upon request.
The takeaway: If you’re hiring nationally or posting remote jobs, default to California or New York requirements (the strictest) to ensure broad compliance.
Common Job Posting Compliance Mistakes
- Omitting salary ranges entirely: The most frequent violation is simply forgetting to include compensation information. This happens when using old job posting templates, posting through platforms that don’t prompt for compensation, or having untrained hiring managers create postings.
- Posting unrealistically wide ranges: Attempting to satisfy requirements with ranges like “$50,000-$200,000” that span multiple levels. California regulators view this as circumventing the law’s intent. Ranges should reflect the actual position’s compensation, not company-wide pay scales.
- Failing to update postings when ranges change: If you increase your budget for a role during recruiting, the posted range must be updated. Offering $95,000 to a candidate when the posting showed “$70,000-$85,000” is a violation.
- Neglecting internal job postings: California, Colorado, and Washington require salary ranges for internal promotion opportunities. Employers complying with external posting requirements sometimes forget internal postings also need ranges.
- Not training hiring managers: Decentralized hiring means multiple people create job postings. Without training and standardized templates, managers make compliance mistakes. Centralize posting creation or implement mandatory review processes.
- Using inconsistent disclosure formats: Switching between annual salary and hourly rates in ways that obscure compensation ($35/hour = $72,800/year, but posting it differently for different roles creates confusion and potential violations).
- Forgetting about aggregator sites: Jobs posted to your career site may automatically feed to Indeed, ZipRecruiter, or other aggregators. Ensure salary information appears correctly across all platforms where your postings appear.
Step-by-Step: Updating Job Postings for 2026
Step 1: Audit current job postings – Review all active job postings across your career site, job boards, aggregator sites, social media recruitment, and internal posting systems. Identify which postings lack required salary ranges or benefits descriptions.
Step 2: Determine applicable laws – List states where you’re recruiting or where remote workers could be located. Identify which state thresholds you meet based on employee count. Determine the strictest applicable requirements you need to satisfy.
Step 3: Establish compensation ranges – For each open position, determine the minimum and maximum you’re prepared to pay based on budget, market research, internal equity, experience level variations, and geographic considerations for remote roles.
Step 4: Create standardized templates – Build job posting templates with mandatory compensation fields including salary range (annual or hourly), benefits description (if required by applicable state), and location/remote work parameters. Include approval workflows requiring compensation review before posting.
Step 5: Update all active postings – Systematically update every active job posting with compliant salary information. Don’t just add new postings—fix existing ones to avoid continued violations.
Step 6: Train hiring teams – Educate managers and recruiters on which positions require salary disclosure, how to determine appropriate ranges, how to use standardized templates, and consequences of non-compliance.
Step 7: Implement ongoing monitoring – Establish regular audits of job postings for compliance. Monitor new pay transparency legislation affecting your hiring locations. Update templates and processes when new laws take effect.
How Automation Simplifies Pay Transparency Compliance
Manual job posting compliance doesn’t scale, especially for businesses hiring frequently or across multiple states. Automation prevents violations through systematic processes:
- Applicant tracking system (ATS) integration: Modern ATS platforms include compensation fields that can be made mandatory. When integrated with pay transparency rules, the system prevents posting without required information and automatically displays ranges in formatted job descriptions.
- State-aware posting logic: Advanced platforms identify which states’ laws apply based on job location or remote work parameters, require appropriate disclosures automatically, and warn users about high-risk violations before posting.
- Template enforcement: Standardized templates with mandatory compensation sections ensure every posting includes required information. Templates update automatically when state requirements change.
- Aggregator feed management: Automation ensures salary information flows correctly to job boards and aggregators, preventing situations where compensation appears on your site but not on Indeed or LinkedIn.
- Compliance monitoring: Automated systems audit active postings regularly, flag missing or non-compliant disclosures, and alert hiring teams to violations requiring correction.
- Multi-state range management: For businesses using geographic pay zones, automation handles displaying appropriate ranges based on work location, maintaining different range sets for various locations, and updating all relevant postings when ranges change.
Why SixFifty Supports Compliant Job Advertising
SixFifty’s platform helps businesses maintain pay transparency compliance across all hiring locations:
- State-specific requirement tracking that identifies which pay transparency laws apply to your business based on hiring locations, determines employer threshold compliance, and flags remote job complications.
- Job posting template generation with built-in compensation fields, state-appropriate benefits disclosure sections, and format consistency across all channels.
- Compliance verification before postings go live, catching missing salary ranges, flagging unreasonably wide ranges, and warning about state-specific violations.
- Continuous legal monitoring tracking new pay transparency legislation, alerting when new laws affect your hiring states, and updating templates automatically for new requirements.
- Documentation and audit support maintaining records of posted compensation ranges, tracking when ranges were updated or changed, and providing violation defense documentation.
Unlike manual processes or basic ATS tools, SixFifty provides comprehensive pay transparency support that prevents violations before they occur.
FAQs About Pay Transparency in Job Postings
What if I’m not sure what salary to offer?
You still must post a good-faith range based on your budget and market research. Conduct compensation benchmarking for the role, consider your internal pay equity, determine your realistic budgeted range, and post that range. “We don’t know yet” isn’t an acceptable answer—do the research before posting.
Can we negotiate outside the posted range?
No. Offering compensation outside the disclosed range violates pay transparency laws. The posted range must be the range you’re actually prepared to pay. If you want negotiation flexibility, post a realistic range that accommodates it.
Do old job postings need to be updated?
Yes. Pay transparency laws generally require compliance for all active job postings, not just new ones created after the law took effect. Audit and update any jobs still posted without required salary information. Remove postings for filled positions to avoid compliance obligations.
How do we handle promotions and internal transfers?
California, Colorado, and Washington require salary ranges for internal promotion postings. When posting internal opportunities in these states, include the same compensation information required for external postings. Some employers provide pay scale information to employees considering internal moves even when not required.
What about recruiters and staffing agencies?
Pay transparency laws typically apply to whoever posts the job. If you use external recruiters, ensure they understand requirements and include salary information in their postings. Your contracts should specify compliance responsibilities and indemnification for violations.
Update Your Job Postings Today
Pay transparency compliance is mandatory in growing numbers of states, with 2026 bringing stricter enforcement and expanded coverage. Non-compliant job postings create per-posting violation exposure that scales with hiring volume.
SixFifty simplifies pay transparency compliance with state-aware posting templates, automated compliance verification, and continuous legal monitoring. Schedule a demo today and ensure every job posting meets current requirements.
