New Jersey could be the next state to require salary transparency in job postings, as a bill mandating certain businesses disclose salary ranges when advertising jobs cleared an Assembly committee this week.
NJBIA, which initially opposed the legislation earlier this year, has currently moved to a neutral position after working with its sponsors to garner some key amendments.
“Ideally, we don’t support broad-brush mandates on businesses which may have very valid reasons to not comply,” said NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs Elissa Frank. “And it does remain to be seen to what extent the bill helps or hurts businesses or workers.
“However, there is no question that salary transparency in job postings will be an increasing trend in different states, and, with that, there is a regional competitiveness angle to be observed for New Jersey. So, we thank the sponsors of the bill for working on some key amendments that we sought, and we look forward to continuing to work with them on the bill as it continues through the legislative process.”
Bill A-3937 (Moriarty, D-4) would make New Jersey the sixth state with a law mandating certain businesses to disclose salary ranges or hourly wages when advertising jobs. New York and Connecticut are two regional states that have already passed the law.
One key amendment NJBIA sought and received was the removal of the private right of action section of the original bill.
“Basically, we felt that an aggrieved person impacted by not seeing a salary range in job descriptions would be undefined and could have been construed so broadly to capture job applicants and/or non-applicants who may have seen a job posting that is not in compliance with the bill,” Frank said.
“That could have potentially opened the floodgates for litigation over minor violations.”
Another amendment received in recent deliberations was the increase in the threshold of employees to exempt small businesses. Originally, the bill applied to employers with five or more employees. That minimum number is now 10 employees.
“We would still love to increase that threshold higher,” Frank said. “But even going from 5 to 10 employees should lessen the impact on smaller employers with less sophisticated hiring practices.”
The initial bill also required employers to announce all promotions in internal and external job postings. However, there is a new provision that when it’s an internal opportunity, the notification requirements do not apply.
“A lot of times someone might get a promotion because they’re doing a really great job in their current role and they’re getting a raise and a new title, but that doesn’t really open a new position within the company,” Frank said. “So, again, we were pleased that internal provision included in the bill.”
The bill was expected to receive full Senate and Assembly votes during the current lame duck legislative session, although the Senate version (S-3663) was pulled from a Senate Labor Committee vote on Thursday.
