What’s the reason we have jobs? To get paid. 

You’d think we should know what we’re going to get paid before we spend time and energy applying for a job, but that isn’t the case for much of the U.S.. With pay transparency laws being different across the country, not everyone is getting the same access to salary information. 

For years it’s been normalized for employers to hide pay on job listings, ask for salary history, promote pay secrecy, and avoid reporting on pay data. This gives the employer the upper hand in salary negotiations and raise discussions, which can cause pay gaps and wage discrimination for workers. 

Despite the implementation of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, a significant gender wage gap persists, with women still earning less than men for the same work. The pay gap across all education levels actually grew in 2026, with women earning $0.82 per dollar earned by men, down from $0.83 the year prior, according to a report by Payscale (we actually spoke with Lulu Seikaly at Payscale for this article). This wage disparity exists across both private and public sectors. Black women were reported making only $0.65 for every dollar white non-Hispanic men make, according to the National Women’s Law Center.

Pay transparency laws seek to change that and give more power back to workers as they fight for fair pay, negotiate their salaries, and discuss wages with their coworkers. Keep in mind that laws may differ from state-to-state, city-to-city, and even sector-to-sector. Depending on your location, your job search may be impacted in all the best ways.

Key points:

• Pay transparency laws help create policies that close marginalizing pay gaps, combat discrimination, and help workers get paid what they deserve.
• 17 states (and Washington D.C.) have pay transparency laws that require employers to disclose pay ranges in job listings.
• In locations where pay transparency laws are not in effect yet, employers are already starting to disclose pay ranges on listings and becoming part of the movement.
• With several states having 1 or more laws that require pay transparency in some way, there are now federal bills in the works.

What are Pay Transparency Laws?

Pay transparency laws govern how employers disclose information about employee compensation, whether that’s internally or externally. They help ensure that all employees are compensated fairly and equitably for the work they do, regardless of gender, race, or other demographic factors, while also helping employees to be able to advocate for themselves with more ease when they negotiate salary in a job offer. 

Disclosing pay compensation has been a practice for quite some time in state and federal job listings. Requirements for private companies are a little different depending on your location as these laws can vary by jurisdiction.

It's important for both employers and employees to be aware of the pay transparency laws that apply to their jurisdiction to ensure compliance and protect their rights.

What are The Different Types of Pay Transparency Laws?

There are 4 different types of pay transparency legislation that currently exist in the U.S. This includes laws that require disclosure of pay ranges, salary history bans, policies that prohibit pay secrecy, and mandatory requirements around pay data reporting.

Required Disclosure of Pay Range

Pay transparency laws that require pay range disclosure exist in a variety of ways and change from location to location. Some laws require salary ranges to be posted in all job listings while other laws require disclosure upon candidate request or after the first interview. 

“Most of the laws say that employers must post a range that they in ‘good faith’ believe they will pay for the role,” says Lulu Seikaly, Senior Corporate Employment Attorney at PayScale. The pay range posted can be a wide range or smaller range depending on the company.

Salary History Bans

Salary history bans are laws that prohibit employers from asking candidates about their salary history, including the question on applications, and from retaliating against job applicants for not sharing salary history information.

What someone makes at a past job shouldn’t have anything to do with what they make at a new job and can often bar them from negotiating for more. Salary history bans make it possible for candidates and employees to fairly negotiate their salary, as it puts them on a more equal level playing field as the employer during those discussions.

Policies Against Pay Secrecy

Thanks to the National Labor Relations Act, workers are legally protected from employer retaliation for talking about their pay. In order for workers to be fully protected under the act, it’s best to share salary information off company time and property.

While most employees in the private sector are covered by the NLRA, the act doesn’t cover any federal, state, or local government employees.

Other workers that aren’t covered by the NLRA includes: 

• Agricultural laborers
• Domestic service workers of any person or family in a home
• Workers employed by a parent or spouse
• Independent contractors
• Supervisors
• Railroads and airlines workers
• For more information on who is and isn’t covered by the NLRA, visit their jurisdictional standards page.

Required Pay Data Reporting

Reporting on pay data helps to identify and eliminate any inequities in compensation. There are a handful of states, including Illinois and Minnesota, that are currently required to report pay and demographic data. This data is usually required to be reported on an annual basis and to their Civil Rights Department, Department of Labor, or other state agency.

What States Have Pay Transparency Laws?

There are pay transparency laws in 17 states that require employers to disclose pay ranges in job listings. Those states include: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington (and Washington D.C.).

20 states have salary history bans: Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington (and Washington D.C.). 

10 states have policies against pay secrecy: Alaska, Connecticut, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and Washington.

6 states require pay data reporting from employers: California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Oregon.

Use the interactive map below to hover over each state in the U.S. to see what pay transparency laws exist (or don’t exist) in your location. To see the full explanation and official government document history for each law, refer to the full table down below.

Pay Transparency Laws By State and Jurisdiction

2026 Proposed Pay Transparency Bill Tracker

Pay transparency bills continue to pop up from all over the country. Refer to the below tracker to track current bills in progress for 2026. 

How Do State-Specific Pay Transparency Laws Work For Remote Positions? 

Where the laws get confusing is when candidates or employees are remote and located elsewhere that isn’t clarified in the law.

“When Colorado’s law first came out, many companies were posting remote job postings, but the postings were explicitly excluding Colorado applicants. A lawsuit was filed, and Colorado came in and said that if employers do this, they are operating in bad faith and skirting around the law. Ultimately, if the job can be performed in 49 out of 50 states, it can be performed in all 50 states, and employers must comply by posting ranges,” Seikaly explained. 

Pay Transparency Laws Outside The U.S. in Canada and the EU

Pay transparency laws don’t only exist in the U.S.. In Canada, 5 provinces have passed pay transparency legislation: Ontario, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia.

Employers are required to provide wage and salary information for any public job listing they post in all 4 provinces. They have all also added salary history bans, and all except for Prince Edward Island require pay transparency reporting. 

The EU is also embracing pay transparency, having recently passed the EU Pay Transparency Directive in 2023 that requires all 27 EU states to meet the directive byJune 2026, which requires employers to disclose wage information before the interview stage. EU countries that currently require wage information in job listings include Belgium, Malta, Lithuania, and Austria. There are 17 other countries that submitted draft laws to do the same, including Sweden, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Poland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czechia, and Latvia. 

This directive also requires EU companies to share information about how much employers pay women and men for the same work. If it’s found from the reporting that the gender pay gap exceeds 5%, legal action will be taken in the form of penalties and fines for employers who break the rules.

Looking Forward to Federal Pay Transparency Legislation 

Pay transparency is also gaining momentum on the Federal level. The Paycheck Fairness Act was introduced in Congress on March 25, 2025 to prohibit employers from asking job applicants about their salary history. It would also require them to prove that pay disparities between genders are job-related if the bill gets passed.

The importance of salary transparency is becoming clearer and clearer with each passing day (and interview we film). Pay transparency laws weren't around 10 years ago. Now there are over 30 states that have some form of pay transparency law, with more on the way and a movement that continues to grow.

Author note: I’m Daniella Flores, a former engineer who writes about tech, money, and careers, member of the CNET Money Expert Review Board, and career researcher that’s appeared in TIME, CNBC, and Investopedia (among many others). I’m extremely passionate about workers' rights and financial freedom, so it’s a pleasure to be able to bring you this type of content through the Resource Hub (thank you for the opportunity, Hannah!) You can also follow me on Linkedin. Chat soon!

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