Salary ranges required in job listings? New Jersey just took its first step

Negotiating pay — it’s one of the most delicate dances when applying for a new job. You may not know how much your employer will pay. How much can you ask for? 

For anyone seeking employment in New Jersey, the compensation question could get a little bit easier, thanks to a bill state lawmakers approved during a Monday committee hearing. 

The proposed Assembly Bill 3937 requires New Jersey businesses of 10 or more employees to include wage or salary information, or a compensation range, to be included in a job posting, as well as a description of all job benefits. 

State lawmakers approved the measure, also called a pay transparency law, by a 4-0 vote in the Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee during its Monday morning hearing. It was introduced in the Assembly in May 2022 and the state Senate in February.

Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on the bill in the Senate Labor Committee this Thursday, and it would still need to pass through both full chambers and Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk before the current lame-duck session ends on Jan. 8 next year. Murphy’s office declined to comment on the legislation. 

Violations of the law, if it is enacted, would carry a $1,000 fine for a first-time offense, $5,000 for a second time and $10,000 per offense thereafter. 

New York City got its own pay disclosure law in 2022, followed by New York state this year, and Connecticut added one in 2021.

“I think regionally it puts us at a disadvantage” with neighboring states not having such a law, said the bill’s sponsor, state Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, D-Gloucester. 

“I know if I was a young engineer that just came out of college in the tri-state area, if I was going on websites looking for jobs, I would do most of my job-looking in New York and Connecticut, where I could at least get some idea of what they’re thinking they might want to pay me, as opposed to going down this path with some New Jersey firm that won’t even tell me what they might want to compensate me with — so why waste my time?” Moriarty said.

Salary ranges in job listings in Jersey City already

Jersey City last year adopted its own pay transparency ordinance, which applies to employers of at least five workers. To increase awareness of the requirement, the City Council and mayor rolled out a public awareness campaign earlier this year. 

Councilman Yousef Saleh, who sponsored the provision, said the focus of the ordinance has gone from its enactment to education and now enforcement.

"It's been education," he said, for both the obligation of employers and the rights of job seekers.

Advocates say the measures even the playing field for job seekers and can help close the wage gaps faced by women and people of color.

“Think of going to a grocery store: You don't have to negotiate with the checkout clerk; there's a clear price and you pay the price,” Christopher To, an assistant professor of human resources management at Rutgers University, said in an interview last year. "With pay transparency, companies are required to make the first offer, and employees can simply walk away if they don't like it.

"Will there still be salary negotiations? Sure. But you're reducing the ‘how much do you want?’ dance by making your information public,” To said.

Bob Considine, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, a trade group, said members were initially opposed to the bill but shifted from their opposition after businesses with 10 or fewer employees were exempted from the law. 

Considine said that “should hopefully lessen the impact on smaller employers with less sophisticated hiring practices.” 

New York's law

Some New York City employers have sought loopholes in the pay requirement law. In some cases, they’ve included huge salary ranges as wide as $2 million, a CNBC report said. Still, labor analysts say the trend is catching on around the country.

Indeed Hiring Lab reported that as of August this year, half of U.S job postings had “at least some employer-provided salary information,” which was “the highest share yet recorded” on the job posting website.

Between August 2022 and 2023, the percentage of postings in New York state that featured some level of pay disclosure doubled from 31% to 61%, Indeed Hiring Lab reported. 

“With pay transparency, the genie is out of the bottle, and there is no going back,” said Maggie Hulce, Indeed’s executive vice president and general manager for enterprise.

Colorado's pay transparency law took effect at the start of 2021. From 2020 to 2021, activity by job seekers in the state rose 1.5% compared with neighboring Utah, although job postings by employers fell 8.2%, according to a study published last year by the labor research firm Recruitonomics.

The decline in postings, however, highlights one potential downside according to critics: Employers wary of publicizing too much information — to job seekers or competitors — may shift work to other locations.

“There are nationwide employers that will advertise positions that will say that if you live in Colorado, do not apply,” Frank Kerbein, a human resources expert at the Business Council of New York State, a trade group that has opposed such mandates, said last year. 

“If you have a headquarters in Charlotte or Virginia or somewhere else, that’s where you’re going to put your new high-priced, sought-after employee," he said, "because I’m not going to get into the business of divulging my compensation range for those people.” 

Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record. 

Email: munozd@northjersey.com; Twitter:@danielmunoz100