The Salary Transparency Act: Employers Must Post Pay Ranges on All Job Openings, Starting Now

If you’ve spent the last few years applying for jobs and playing the frustrating "guess the salary" game, this new piece of legislation, officially called the Salary Transparency Act, is about to change the rules of the game. Essentially, this bill amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to mandate wage transparency across the board, forcing employers to put their cards on the table when it comes to compensation.

No More Guessing Games: What the Bill Requires

Under the new rules outlined in Section 2, employers can no longer post a job opening—whether it's on LinkedIn, the company website, or even a physical sign—without including the specific wage or salary range for that position. This closes a major information gap for job seekers. For example, if you’re looking at a new role in software development, the company can’t just say “competitive salary” anymore; they have to list something like "$110,000 to $145,000."

This transparency isn't just for public postings. If you're an applicant and an employer contacts you directly, they must disclose the pay range before any discussion about compensation happens. And if you ask for it at any point, they have to give it to you immediately. This means no more wasting time going through three rounds of interviews only to find out the salary is nowhere near what you need to pay the mortgage.

Your Annual Pay Check-Up

The bill also extends these rights to people who are already on the payroll. Employers must inform current employees of the wage or salary range for their specific position when they are hired, at least once every year, and immediately upon request (Section 2). This is huge for internal equity. If you’re an office manager and you find out the pay range for your role is $60,000 to $85,000, and you’re currently making $62,000, you now have the concrete data you need to argue for a raise based on where you fall within the company's own established scale.

The Fine Print: What Counts as a "Wage Range"?

This is where things get a little squishy. The bill defines the “wage range” as the pay the employer “genuinely expects to use” when setting the final compensation. This range can be based on the official pay scale, a pre-set range for the role, or what the company budgeted for the position. While the intent is to provide a real picture, the wording leaves some wiggle room. Employers could potentially set a very wide range—say, $50,000 to $100,000—that technically complies with the law but doesn't give applicants a truly useful negotiating anchor. We’ll need to watch how regulators and the courts interpret what “genuinely expects” actually means in practice.

Teeth: Penalties and Protections for Workers

If an employer decides to ignore these new rules, they face real consequences. For a first violation, the civil penalty is $5,000, increasing by $1,000 for each subsequent violation, up to a maximum of $10,000. More importantly, the affected applicant or employee can sue the employer in court. The employer would be on the hook for statutory damages between $1,000 and $10,000 or whatever the actual damages were, plus they have to cover the person's reasonable attorney fees.

Crucially, the law explicitly prohibits employers from retaliating against anyone who exercises these new rights, such as refusing to interview, hire, or promote someone just because they asked for the pay range. This protection is key; it ensures that workers can actually use the law without fearing that they’ll be blacklisted or penalized for asking questions about their own money.