The New York City Council has approved, overwhelmingly, a measure to increase salary transparency and provide workers with important information necessary to navigate the job search and hiring process. On December 15, the council made it mandatory for all employers with four or more employees to provide minimum and maximum salaries on all job postings, effective April 14, 2022. Additionally, any domestic work employers must do so regardless of the number of employees they have. Unfortunately, this will not apply to temp work.
According to the legislation’s supporters, the move will provide job seekers with essential information necessary to conduct fair salary negotiations with potential employers. Up to this point workers have been largely in the dark about salary ranges, putting them at a disadvantage. For example, without knowledge of the salary range, a potential employee may be asked to name their own wages which may be significantly below what an employer was willing to pay for the work.
Such moves to transparency are an important piece of the overall move towards salary transparency in industry, which has proven to be a powerful way to boost and maintain employee satisfaction and create a more equitable work environment.
While advocates have hailed this as a big win, opponents believe this smacks of overreach and a government misunderstanding of how businesses in the city are run. If you see any job postings for work in New York City that do not contain salary ranges, you are encouraged to report these to the city’s Human Rights Commission.
