Salary transparency laws aim to combat pay disparities

NEW YORK — Starting this week, job-seekers in New York City will have access to a key piece of information: how much money they can expect to earn for an advertised opening. New York will require employers as of Nov. 1 to disclose “a good faith salary range for every job, promotion, and transfer opportunity advertised,” according to the city’s Commission on Human Rights. Seher Khawaja, senior attorney for economic empowerment at Legal Momentum whose organization helped draft the New York City law, said salary transparency “gives existing employees and workers information to better gauge how positions within their workplace are valued and whether they’re being paid fairly.” It also gives employers a way to avoid liability. Business groups, including New York’s five borough chambers of commerce, have argued that the law could create “dissatisfaction in the workforce and demands to adjust existing pay scales that the employer may be unable to afford.” “During a labor shortage, or in the context of achieving diversity goals, the posted maximum may be significantly higher than the historical salary ranges,” the groups wrote in a letter to the New York City Council. Mary Ramsay, 55, a health educator based in Syracuse, New York who is looking for a job with higher pay, said she hopes New York City’s salary transparency law will soon apply to the entire state, something that legislators are currently considering.