New York City employers are hustling to figure out what to do about impending salary-disclosure rules, while hoping for a delay.
A sweeping pay-disclosure law requiring nearly all companies operating in the city to include pay ranges on job postings is set to take effect in under a month. With the deadline approaching, employers have been consulting attorneys on how to comply, setting compensation ranges for each job title and coaching managers on how to explain the numbers to existing workers.
At the same time, business groups have worked to get the law postponed or changed before it takes effect May 15. An amendment to the law , proposed last month and revised in recent days, calls for implementation to be delayed until November.
“Employers are trying to understand what this means and what their obligations are under this law,” said Melissa Camire, a partner in the New York office of Fisher & Phillips LLP. She is advising employers to take action now, even if the law is ultimately delayed. “May 15 is just a few weeks away, so you can’t ignore that may be the date you need to start doing this.”
People traveled through New York City’s Grand Central Terminal in March. Hybrid- and remote-work situations are factoring more in hiring. Photo: Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The Wall Street Journal .
At the enterprise software company Workato Inc., human-resources executives expect to spend the coming weeks meeting with employment attorneys for advice on things like what the law means for remote roles, said Kerry Moore, vice president of global talent and diversity at the company, which employs 850 workers globally, including roughly 30 staffers who live in the New York area.
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Ms. Moore said if Workato discloses pay while advertising jobs, it will likely aim to explain in postings that a base salary is just one part of the company’s total compensation, which also includes bonuses and equity. Another priority is preparing managers to answer questions from existing employees who might see published salary ranges on job postings and wonder why they aren’t at the top of a pay band themselves, Ms. Moore said.
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“There’s just a lot of maybe downstream effects from this,” Ms. Moore said.
Inc. earlier this year shared pay bands with every employee in what it said was an attempt to help staffers understand their earning potential, said Toni Thompson, vice president of people at Etsy. In advance of that move, Etsy also rolled out educational materials last year to inform managers and employees on how pay ranges are structured. Some employers say previous work to address pay equity has helped them to get ahead of the law. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based online marketplace Etsy earlier this year shared pay bands with every employee in what it said was an attempt to help staffers understand their earning potential, said Toni Thompson, vice president of people at Etsy. In advance of that move, Etsy also rolled out educational materials last year to inform managers and employees on how pay ranges are structured.
Employees working at Etsy in Brooklyn in 2015; Etsy this year shared pay bands with every employee. Photo: Chris Goodney/Bloomberg News .
New York’s law, aimed at addressing gender-pay gaps and providing more transparency on pay, calls for employers to disclose the expected salary range that an employer in good faith believes it would pay for each advertised job, promotion or transfer opportunity. Nearly every employer hiring in the city would be covered by it; only those with fewer than four employees or staffing firms hiring for temporary workers are excluded.
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The latest version of the bill to amend the law would push back implementation to Nov. 1. It says that employers, generally, wouldn’t be subject to civil penalties on their first violation of the rule and would have 30 days to correct the matter. It also limits lawsuits that could be filed related to the law.
Business groups had called the law the wrong solution in a tight labor market . The Partnership for New York City, a business group, and local chambers of commerce sent a letter to the New York City Council on April 4 warning that the bill would adversely affect hiring.
Kathryn Wylde, chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, said Saturday that City Council’s efforts to delay implementation and revise parts of the salary law reflected, in part, a positive sign that “Council leadership is willing to listen to concerns of employers and reverse provisions of the salary transparency law that made compliance particularly burdensome.”
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In the remote-work era, many companies have workers scattered across the country, and clients are asking how they can craft a “50-state policy,” allowing job postings to be in compliance in each jurisdiction, Mr. O’Shea said.
Jeanne Stewart, founder and president of HR on the Move LLC, a New York-based human resources consulting firm, has been telling her clients at nonprofits, startups, insurance-service providers and others to prepare for the law. She recently told one client to take down its half-dozen job listings from its website and to re-upload them once the firm had salary ranges for each role.
“I’m just like, ‘Remove them, and we’re not putting them back up until we have good-faith ranges,’” Ms. Stewart said.
Hari Prasad, founder and CEO of Yosi Health, a New York-based healthcare software company that employs four workers with plans to hire another 10 this year, said he looks forward to being able to compare salaries at the company’s competitors. He added there might be a potential upside to including salaries upfront: fewer surprises at the end of an interview process, when an applicant is typically told the pay.
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“This is going to make the hiring process more efficient,” Mr. Prasad said.
New York is rolling out a new law requiring employers to list salary ranges on job postings. Similar laws in places like Colorado aim to even the playing field for applicants. But not everyone is embracing the changes. Illustration: Adele Morgan The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition .