Show salary, please: Employers in New York must follow this new job ads law

New York employers will have to disclose proposed pay rates in the help-wanted advertisements as a statewide salary transparency law goes into effect with the aim to give women and people of color a way to advocate for equal pay for equal work. The rule, as per which salary ranges for any job advertised externally to the public or internally to workers interested in a promotion or transfer should be disclosed, will apply to employers with at least four workers.

The new law aims to promote pay transparency that will prevent employers from offering some job candidates less or more money based on age, gender, race or factors other than their skills. The rule will also be useful for underpaid workers in making them realize that they make less than people doing the same job. Similar pay transparency ordinance has been in effect in New York City since 2022. States like California and Colorado also have the same law in place.

Read more: 14 killed after aircraft carrying US tourists crashes in Brazil

“There is a trend, not just in legislatures but among workers, to know how much they can expect going into a job. There’s a demand from workers to know of the pay range,” Da Hae Kim, a state policy senior counsel at the National Women's Law Center, told Associated Press.

Frank Kerbein, director of human resources at the New York Business Council, said that compliance will be a challenge.

“We have small employers who don’t even know about the law," Frank Kerbein said adding that there could be “a lot of unintentional noncompliance.”

State Senator Jessica Ramos appreciated the new law saying that it is a win for labor rights groups.

“This is something that, organically, workers are asking for. Particularly with young people entering the workforce, they’ll have a greater understanding about how their work is valued," she said.