As a reminder, New York State employers with at least 4 employees are now (as of 9/17/2023) required to disclose the compensation range they are willing to pay a successful applicant for any advertised job, promotion, or transfer, including to a pool of potential internal applicants (“Job Posting”). This should be familiar to New York City employers, which are already subject to similar requirements.

The primary requirements of the “pay transparency” law are summarized below, along with additional provisions detailed in recently proposed implementing regulations (“Proposed Regs”). Though these Proposed Regs are not yet final, employers should be prepared to comply with these additional requirements.

Covered Job Postings

The pay transparency requirements apply to jobs that are partially or entirely performed in New York State, as well as jobs performed outside of New York if an employee will be required to report to a supervisor or work site based in New York.

Compensation Range Required

With respect to the compensation range, it must be a good faith estimate of the minimum and maximum annual salary, or hourly rate - meaning the range of compensation the employer legitimately believes they are willing to pay the successful applicant at the time they post an advertisement.

If the job relies on commission-based compensation, employers must include a general statement in the job posting informing prospective employees that the position is commission-based.

Under the proposed regulations, the range may not be open-ended such as “$X and up” or “maximum $Y,” and employers may not include other forms of compensation such as tips in the range of compensation itself (such as “$28/hour including expected tips”), as it fails to disclose the base rate of pay.

Job Description Required

Employers are required to provide a job description, if available, in the Job Posting. The law itself does not go so far as to require that a job description be created.

However, under the recently proposed regulations, the state clearly contemplates that a job description should exist unless the name of the position or title clearly conveys the full extent of the duties required of the position without additional detail. The proposed regulations use the example of a “dishwasher” to demonstrate this limited exception.

Recordkeeping Not Required

There is one piece of good news: the pay transparency law was amended before implementation to provide that employers need not maintain a record of the compensation ranges or job descriptions for advertised jobs.

However, doing so may aid in the defense of an equal pay claim in the future.  

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If you have questions or would like additional information, please contact our Labor & Employment attorneys or the primary EGS attorney with whom you work.