As a reminder, starting October 29, 2025, Massachusetts employers with 25 or more employees must comply with the Commonwealth’s new pay transparency and disclosure requirements. The Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency directs covered employers to include pay ranges in all job postings and provide this information to applicants and employees upon request.

The pay range must reflect the lowest to highest pay rate the employer reasonably and in good faith expects to offer for a position. This requirement applies to any job posting tied to a Massachusetts worksite, including certain remote roles. The law prohibits retaliation against individuals who request pay range information or exercise their rights under the statute. The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office will enforce the law and has released FAQs to guide employers.

These pay disclosure rules are in addition to workforce data reporting requirements that took effect in February of this year under the same law. Employers with at least 100 employees must periodically submit their federal EEO reports to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, as outlined in the statute.

With the deadline only weeks away, employers should prepare now if they have not already started planning for these changes. Noncompliance can trigger investigations and penalties.

If you have questions about Massachusetts’ pay transparency requirements and how they may affect your organization, contact a Jackson Lewis attorney for assistance.

Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 642 on October 8, 2025, revising California’s Equal Pay Act. Effective January 1, 2026, the amendments refine key definitions, including “pay scale,” “sex,” and “wages,” and limit the period to obtain relief to six years.

For more details about SB 642, read the full analysis here.

On October 9, 2025, the New York City Council passed amendments to local laws that, if passed, would impose new pay equity reporting obligations on certain private employers and require the city to conduct annual pay equity studies.  These measures are designed to identify and address wage disparities based on gender, race, and ethnicity. The amendments are now pending before the mayor, who has 30 days to sign, veto, or allow the amendments to become law automatically.

If the amendments become law, private employers with at least 200 employees that file EEO-1 Component 1 reports with the EEOC will be required to submit annual pay data reports to a city agency designated by the mayor. The data will align with information previously required under the EEOC’s EEO-1 Component 2 filings. The designated agency will be responsible for developing a reporting system and standardized form within a year of the law’s effective date. Employers will then have one year to submit their first reports and must file subsequent reports on an annual basis. Those who fail to comply risk civil penalties and being publicly listed on the agency’s website.

Additionally, the designated agency will conduct an annual pay equity study, analyzing the collected data to identify pay disparities and trends across industries and occupations. The agency will publicly release its recommendations, with any data presented in the aggregate to safeguard individual employee and employer identities.

Jackson Lewis is closely monitoring the status of these amendments and will provide updates as developments unfold.

If you have questions about New York City’s pending pay equity requirements and their potential impact on your organization, contact a Jackson Lewis attorney to discuss.

Beginning October 27, 2025, Cleveland employers with 15 or more employees will need to comply with the city’s new pay transparency and compensation history requirements. Ordinance No. 104-2025 prohibits covered employers from asking applicants about their salary history, including benefits, and bars employers from using compensation history to screen candidates or make hiring decisions. Employers must also include salary ranges or pay scales in all job postings.

The ordinance provides limited exceptions, such as internal transfers or promotions, voluntary and unprompted disclosures by applicants, or when compensation is governed by collective bargaining. The Fair Employment and Wage Board will enforce the new law. Upon receiving a complaint, employers will have 90 days to cure violations and may also appeal any civil penalties, which is more lenient than the five-business-day window employers have to cure deficiencies under the recent amendments to the Washington pay transparency laws.

With the compliance deadline rapidly approaching, now is the time for employers to act. Cleveland employers should take key steps:

  • Review and update all job postings to include salary ranges or scales.
  • Eliminate any application questions or interview practices that seek compensation history.
  • Train hiring managers and recruiters on compliance requirements.

If you have questions about Cleveland’s new requirements or aligning your hiring practices with evolving pay transparency laws nationwide, contact a Jackson Lewis attorney.

On September 26, 2025, Delaware Governor Matt Meyer signed House Substitute No. 2 to House Bill 105, adding Delaware to the growing list of states with pay transparency obligations for employers.

Beginning in 2027, employers will be required to include the pay range and a general description of benefits and other compensation in all job postings. The law applies to Delaware-based positions and certain remote roles offered by Delaware employers, with limited exceptions. Employers will also be subject to new recordkeeping requirements. The Delaware Department of Labor is tasked with enforcement and issuing regulations and administrative procedures.

Although the law does not take effect until 2027, employers may wish to prepare in advance. Reviewing job posting practices and updating compensation documentation may help ensure effective implementation and compliance when the new requirements take effect.

For guidance on how to navigate Delaware’s impending pay transparency requirements, or other states’ pay transparency laws, contact a Jackson Lewis attorney to discuss.

Washington State has taken a significant step for employers under its pay transparency law by giving employers a five-business-day grace period to correct violations in job postings and limiting the damages plaintiffs can win, among other changes to the law. The requirement that Washington employers post wage and salary information, and information about benefits and other compensation, in their job postings is unchanged.

On May 20, 2025, Governor Bob Ferguson signed legislation amending the state’s pay transparency law, the Equal Pay and Opportunities Act. The changes are effective July 27, 2025, through July 27, 2027.

Since the 2023 amendments went into effect requiring salary ranges and benefit disclosures in job postings, employers across the state have faced many lawsuits brought by so-called tester applicants, people applying not with the intent to work but to find technical violations. The new law introduces a grace period for employers to fix an identified issue. Under the new law, an employer notified in writing about a non-compliant job posting will have five business days to fix the issue before any penalties kick in.

Another welcome change for employers is the adjustment to the damages structure. Under the previous law, plaintiffs could claim damages automatically, regardless of intent or actual harm. The new law provides statutory damages ranging from $100 to $5,000, and courts are directed to consider several factors when determining awards, including the size of the employer, whether the violation was willful, and the nature of the infraction.

The amendments also clarify that employers are permitted to list a fixed rate, rather than a wage or salary range, when applicable. Additionally, employers will not be held liable for postings that are republished without their knowledge or consent by third-party websites.

Questions that remain include whether people applying solely to find non-compliant postings qualify as “bona fide applicants” and how the latest changes will affect pending litigation, if at all.

As we wait for more clarity, employers should continue to review their job postings carefully, implement internal compliance reviews and train HR teams on updated requirements. Employers should also have a plan for promptly addressing any potential violations. As always, Jackson Lewis attorneys are here to help you navigate these developments. Please reach out to our Pay Equity Group or the Jackson Lewis attorney you regularly work with for any questions.

Starting October 27, 2025, employers in Cleveland will need to adjust their hiring practices to align with the city’s newly enacted pay transparency and compensation history law. On April 30, 2025, Cleveland passed legislation mandating that employers disclose salary ranges and scales in job advertisements. Additionally, the law prohibits employers from inquiring about an applicant’s compensation history, including benefits. Read more.

Last July, Massachusetts joined a growing number of states mandating that employers provide pay transparency to employees. The Massachusetts pay transparency law also includes a wage data reporting component that requires covered employers to submit EEO-1 reports to the Commonwealth on an annual basis. As the Feb. 3, 2025, deadline to file EEO-1 reports nears, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development has released frequently asked questions (FAQs) to help employers comply with the wage data reporting aspect of the new law.

Key Takeaways

  • The Massachusetts pay transparency law was drafted to mirror the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC’s) reporting requirements, including a prior wage data reporting obligation that entailed submitting W-2 income earnings by race/ethnicity, sex, and job category. Significantly, the EEOC has not required the wage data reporting component since 2018. Thus, the FAQs confirm that the Commonwealth will still accept EEO-1 reports and will not require any additional information at this time.
  • Only employers with at least 100 employees in the Commonwealth at any time during the prior calendar year are subject to the reporting requirement (the threshold drops to 25 for the disclosure of pay ranges in job postings).
  • The statute provides that the initial wage data report is due by Feb. 1, 2025, and annually on the same date thereafter. If the deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, however, it will be extended to the next business day. Since Feb. 1 falls on a Saturday this year, reports will be accepted until Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. The other EEO reports are due by the same deadline but on a biennial basis: EEO-3 and EEO-5 this year, and EEO-4 next year.
  • Employers must submit the report in PDF, JPG, or PNG format to the Secretary of State’s office through the web portal: EEO Wage and Workforce Data Reports.
  • By June 1, 2025, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development will publish the inaugural wage and workforce data report.

In addition to the impending wage data reporting deadline, employers should continue to prepare for the pay disclosure requirements that go into effect in October 2025.

Employers should be reviewing (or implementing pay ranges) for various job categories and evaluating whether employees are properly compensated within the established pay ranges. We expect additional guidance on the pay disclosure requirements.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has signed into law a new statute requiring pay transparency. The law will become effective on June 1, 2025.

Specifically, the law requires all employers that have at least 10 employees over 20 calendar weeks and that do business, employ persons, or take applications for employment within the Garden State to disclose the hourly wage or salary (or a range of the hourly wage or salary it would consider) for the advertised position, as well as a general description of all benefits and other compensation programs the applicant would be eligible for within the first 12 months of their employment.

Further, if an employer decides to advertise (either internally or externally) for a position which could be considered a promotion for an existing employee, the employer must make “reasonable efforts” to announce, post, or otherwise make known the promotion opportunity to all current employees in the affected department(s) before making a decision as to who will be selected for the open position.

Temporary help service firms and consulting firms registered with the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety are excepted from the disclosure requirements.

For more information on the new law and requirements for compliance, please see Getting Clear on NJ’s Upcoming Pay Transparency Law: Terms, Requirements + Noncompliance Consequences Employers Need to Know. Contact your Jackson Lewis attorney with any questions on compliance with the new law.