New Jersey Releases Pay Transparency Guidance

The state of New Jersey has released guidance that clarifies New Jersey employers’ pay transparency obligations under the law.

The details

As a reminder, the state of New Jersey enacted legislation that requires employers to include pay, benefits and other compensation information in job postings for a new job or transfer opportunity. The requirements are in effect.

Guidance

The state of New Jersey has released guidance in the form of frequently asked questions to help employers navigate their pay transparency requirements under the law.

Among other things, the guidance clarifies:

Covered Employers

An employer is covered under the state’s pay transparency law if it has 10 or more employees working over 20 calendar weeks. When an employer does not have any employees who work in New Jersey, the employer is still covered under the law if it does business in New Jersey or takes applications for employment within New Jersey.

Job Posted Nationally

An employer must comply with the state’s pay transparency law when the employer is advertising nationally or accepting applications from anywhere in the country if the employer:

• Has the minimum number of employees to be covered under the state pay transparency law; and
  
  
• Does business, employs individuals or takes applications for employment in New Jersey.
  

Penalties

Under the state pay transparency law:

• An employer that is found to have violated the law may face a fine of up to $300 for the first violation and up to $600 for each subsequent violation.
  
  
• It is considered a single violation under the law when an employer publishes the same job posting in multiple places at the same time, such as in a newspaper, on job search websites and on social media.
  
  
• An employer who advertises multiple roles in their organization at the same time is subject to one penalty for each role where the job posting fails to comply with the law.
  

Next steps

• Review the frequently asked questions.
• Update hiring practices to help ensure compliance with the guidance.