Wage transparency laws are becoming increasingly common in the United States and Europe. Such laws require companies to disclose certain employee compensation information to both job applicants and existing employees, as a means of addressing pay disparity concerns, particularly along gender and racial lines.
For job applicants, wage transparency typically means companies must include salary ranges in job postings or during the hiring process, so that employees with parallel skills and experience will be offered comparable salaries. For existing employees, wage transparency includes the right to access (i) certain information about an employee’s own pay, such as the criteria used to determine compensation rates and promotions, and (ii) the average pay of colleagues in similar roles, including broken down by gender.