Equal pay in the US: California has the most equal pay

California lawmakers passed a bill in early September that would require employers with at least 15 employees to add salary caps to job postings in the state. Bill SB 1162 It represents an extension of the Equal Pay Act introduced in 2017 – with the aim of further combating pay disparities related to gender, race and ethnic origin.

For example, the Equal Pay Act requires employers to offer a salary range for a job only if the applicant asks for it after the first interview. Companies must report to the state the average and median hourly rates for each race, ethnicity, and gender within each job category.

The objective of the Salary Disclosure and Registration Bill is to reduce wage disparity. According to the US Census Bureau In 2020, women earned just 83 cents for every dollar men earned. Median household income also varies significantly by race and ethnicity.

Other US states, including Washington, Nevada and Connecticut, already have salary transparency laws and have gained momentum in recent years, according to US media reports. In Colorado”Equal pay for equal workThe law takes effect in January 2021 and requires employers to include salary ranges in all job advertisements for jobs in the state of Colorado.

The California Chamber of Commerce, a business-oriented lobby group, rejects the bill as “unworkable” even after removing a section that would have made all wage data public. Even if salary data is breached on a third-party job site, the bill provides an individual right to sue companies that fail to comply because the requirement to disclose salary ranges would be “difficult, if not impossible,” the group says. .

The committee criticizes the record-keeping requirements and administrative burden of requiring employers to publish all promotion opportunities.