California employers will be required to post salaries for job listings under new law

A bill that Governor Gavin Newsom signed this week says that businesses in California with 15 or more employees must now put salary ranges in all job ads. When Senate Bill 1162 goes into effect on January 1, California will join other states like Connecticut, Colorado, and Washington that have recently passed similar laws. The bill builds on SB 973, which was passed in 2020. It requires employers with more than 100 workers to give the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing information about wages.

Sen. Monique Limón (D-Goleta), who wrote the bill, said in a statement on Tuesday, “This is a watershed moment for California workers, especially women and people of colour who have been affected for a long time by institutional differences that have caused them to earn much less than their colleagues.” “As we work to make the economy more stable, we must make sure that everyone is treated fairly,” Trusaic is a software platform that helps businesses deal with pay gaps based on gender. In 2020, women in California made $46 billion less than men, and people of colour made $61 billion less than white people. In a separate survey done by the state last year, both men and women were found to be working at the same rate, but men get 64% of the top wages while women only get 36%. The study looked at data from more than 6 million workers. It also found that Latino and Black workers were more likely than white and Asian workers to work low-paying jobs that paid $30,679 or less per year.

The California Employment Lawyers Assn. said in a statement in support of SB 1162 that pay differences are often “hidden from sight” and get worse when recruiting methods are not closely looked at. Because of this, it’s possible that workers and, more often than not, employers, especially those at larger companies, don’t know about pay differences based on gender or race. In 1996, when the U.S. set up Equal Pay Day, women made about 74 cents for every dollar men made. The difference has stayed about the same over time. According to the 2020 census, women made 83 cents for every dollar men made. After taking on the national soccer association, the U.S. women’s soccer team was able to get the same pay as the men’s team. This is what started the latest controversy. Hewlett Packard Enterprise agreed to pay more than $8 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by female employees who said they were paid less than men. 

The new rule also tries to increase the amount of employment and wage data that is collected by adding businesses that employ more than 100 people directly or through labour contractors to the list of businesses that must do so. Members of the Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment, and Retirement say that industries that rely heavily on contract labour, like cleaning and maintenance, often hire a lot of immigrants, low-wage workers, and other workers who are subject to labour violations.