When You Have to Post a Salary Range

When you have to post a salary range (and where)

Salary-range posting rules follow where applicants could work, not just where your business is.

There's no federal pay-transparency law. But 13 states plus DC already have pay-transparency laws — including California, Colorado, Washington, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Maryland. Maine and Virginia take effect in 2026, and Delaware follows in 2027. Seven cities layer on top. A remote role posted anywhere can attract every covered state's law if a resident there could apply.

Washington has run the surface test. Over 300 class-action lawsuits since June 2024 for postings missing a range, with $100–$5,000 in damages per applicant. After a 2025 state supreme-court ruling, the applicant doesn't have to apply in good faith — exposure scales with click-throughs, not hires. NYC can fine up to $250,000 per uncorrected violation; California requires the range you reasonably expect to pay the actual hire — not a wide range that covers everyone from entry to senior.

How to post without triggering a class action

• List which of your job postings could be picked up by a covered-state resident.
• Post a tight, defensible salary range on every posting that could attract one.
• Extend the same range to every recruiter, LinkedIn, Indeed, or staffing-agency posting.
• For California, post the range you expect to pay the actual hire — not the full entry-to-senior range.
• In Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia, post ranges on internal promotion and transfer notices too.

How small posting decisions become class actions

• A Texas employer posting a remote engineer role on LinkedIn without a range — every Washington click is a potential plaintiff.
• Posting $50,000–$200,000 for one engineering role to "cover the range" — state agencies treat that as a missing-range violation.
• Your recruiter posts the role on Indeed without the range — you're liable, not the recruiter.
• Promoting an internal candidate in Massachusetts without posting the range — same penalty as a missing external posting.

Post one range, everywhere, every platform

For multi-state employers, post one defensible salary range on every job posting, every platform, including internal promotions — even in states without a pay-transparency law. The marginal effort is a tighter posting template; the avoided cost is the $100–$5,000-per-applicant penalty for any covered-state resident who clicks through.