Compensation Equity Proposals

In 2017 and 2018 several states have considered and/or enacted policy proposals that would require employers to disclose compensation data in an effort to achieve greater pay equity for women and people of color.  California, New York, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Oregon and a number of municipalities — such as San Francisco and New York — have enacted their own version of pay equity laws. These laws are designed to remove salary and compensation history from the hiring process.

In 2017, Governor Cuomo of New York issued executive order 162 which requires state contractors to disclose data on the gender, race, ethnicity, job title, and salary of employees performing work on state contracts issued and executed on or after June 1, 2017.  In 2018, the California Assembly considered SB 1284, that would have required employers with 100 or more employees to annually report pay data from employees’ W-2 forms for specified job types and pay bands, broken down by sex, race, and ethnicity.