Salary transparency laws are spreading rapidly in the US and have recently come into effect in NYC.

As the new law requires adjustments and setting new strategies, we have partnered with HR consultancy Gray Scalable to facilitate a workshop on the best practices for staying compliant while competitive.

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Here are the key takeaways:

The basics of the law:

New York City employers are now required to list salary ranges on all job advertisements, promotions, and transfer opportunities. All positions that can or will be performed, in part or whole, in New York City are covered, whether they are performed remotely, from an office, or in the field.
Link to the full law can be found here.

External Talent

  • Context: Salary is just 10% of the story. The risk of posting only the salary will only emphasize the issue. Make sure to share benefits, commission, culture, etc.

  • Qualifiers: The words you use with the numbers are equally important and helpful for the content. The language clarifies immediate questions.
    Use Gray’s recommended language here.

  • Employer Brand vs. Attrition: Companies that embrace transparency will attract talent from companies that don’t. On the other hand, those who are not compliant are at risk of attrition.

Internal Talent

  • Rational decision making: Pretend the whole world can see what everyone is being paid in the company and be able to defend and rationalize to employees their compensation. Train management and equip them with scripts and principles.

  • Leveling is key: Leveling is the foundation in any business, giving you a way to set pay in the right way. Alongside that, make sure you provide a roadmap for each employee of how to progress in the company.

  • Mind the Trust Gap: People care of internal fairness more than their salary. Make sure to make fair policies and communicate them internally.

Geography

  • Tier Approach: Most companies have a tiered approach to how employees are paid across different metro areas (in the US), as this scales more efficiently and allows a company to stay more consistent with their market percentile strategy.

  • Going Neutral: An alternative strategy is to determine pay based on only job level and function without considering location.

  • Going International: When posting jobs in other countries, mention this may vary based on geography.

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