Cleveland, Ohio, has passed an ordinance (Ordinance 104-2025) that bans an employer from inquiring about an applicant's salary history and requires employers to include salary ranges and scales when advertising job openings. Ordinance 104-2025 takes effect on Oct. 27, 2025.
The Details
Pay Transparency Requirements
The Ordinance requires an employer with at least 15 employees working in Cleveland to provide the salary range or scale (including wages, commissions, hourly earnings, and other monetary earnings such as benefits) in all notification, advertisement or other formal job postings that offer the opportunity for all occupations, vocations, jobs and work.
Note: The Ordinance covers temporary, seasonal, part-time, contracted, contingent, commission, and temp work but does not cover independent contractors.
Salary History Protections
The Ordinance also prohibits employers from taking the following actions against applicants applying for work within the City:
- Screening based on their current or prior compensation or requiring them to satisfy minimum or maximum criteria;
- Inquiring about their compensation history by:
o Communicating a direct or indirect statement, question, prompting or other communication (orally or in writing and personally or through an agent) to gather information from or about an applicant; or
o Conducting a search of publicly available records or reports for the purpose of gathering information from or about an applicant.
o Note: An employer may inform an applicant (in writing or otherwise) about the position's proposed or anticipated salary and may engage in discussions with the applicant about their salary expectations.
- Relying solely on their compensation history in deciding whether to offer employment or determining compensation during the hiring process (unless authorized under federal, state or local law); or
- Refusing to hire or otherwise retaliate against those who refuse to disclose their compensation history.
Note: Salary history does not include any objective measure of an applicant's productivity, such as revenue, sales, or other production reports.
Exceptions
The Ordinance requirements do not apply to:
- Internal transfers, promotions, or rehires (provided the employer already has salary history from the applicant's prior employment);
- An applicant's voluntary, unprompted disclosure of their salary history;
- Obtaining an applicant's salary history:
- Jobs where workers' pay is subject to collective bargaining.
Enforcement
Employers that are found to have violated the law may face increasing penalties. See the Ordinance for further details.
Next Steps
Review pay policies and procedures and rain supervisors on the Ordinance's requirements by Oct. 27, 2025.