The new Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (EPEW) and Equal Pay Transparency (EPT) rules have been garnering a lot of attention in recent weeks. First, the litigation challenging the law has been dismissed following denial of Plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction. More recently, the law has been in the news in connection with reports that job postings for various employers contained language “excepting” Colorado from their remote openings. Following these reports, the state undertook a study of remote job postings. According to the state, the study (which looked at more than 200 remote job postings) found “99% of remote job posts did not exclude Coloradans.”

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) shared these, and other statistics, during an on-line training addressing the EPEWA and EPT rules held on July 2, 2021 (the Friday before this year’s Fourth of July holiday).

One of the points the state confirmed is employers are not required to post jobs externally. However, if they do, and the job can be performed in Colorado, pay and benefits must be included on (or linked) on the posting

(1) Is an external posting required? No. Compensation disclosure required only if employer chooses to have an external job post.

One of the biggest take-aways from the program is the state specifically reported that

[o]mitting compensation by posting that a remote job is for anyone, anywhere ‘except Coloradans’: Not compliant with Act.

Similarly, the training stated that employers posting a job as remote “can’t mis-label job (as not performable in CO) to opt out of law.”

The training went on to reiterate that there are “no exceptions;” the “rules can’t & don’t add exceptions absent from the statute.”

While not regulatory, or even formal guidance, the training certainly indicates the position the state will be taking on enforcement of this issue going forward.

There are indications, however, that the state will afford employers the opportunity to bring postings into compliance after a first violation with the issuance of a fine.

We will continue to monitor developments in this area and share any additional updates and insights.