District of Columbia Passes Pay Transparency Bill

Author: Emily Scace, Brightmine Legal Editor

January 16, 2023

Employers in the District of Columbia will soon be required to include pay information in job postings unless Congress votes to disapprove the pay transparency bill within the 30-day congressional review period.

Signed by Mayor Muriel Bowser on January 12, the Wage Transparency Omnibus Amendment Act of 2023 will require all employers with at least one employee in the District of Columbia, except for the DC and federal governments, to include a pay range in all job postings beginning June 30, 2024.

A covered posting will be required to include a pay range that extends “from the lowest to the highest salary or hourly pay that the employer in good faith believes at the time of the posting it would pay” for the advertised position. Although employers need not include benefits information in job postings, as some states require, the law will require employers to inform candidates of the existence of healthcare benefits before the first interview.

If an employer fails to include a pay range in a job posting as required, prospective employees will have the right to ask the employer for the information. Employers will also be required to post a notice in the workplace informing employees of their rights under the law.

The law would also restrict salary history inquiries. Covered employers would be prohibited from inquiring into a prospective employee’s salary history or requiring that a prospective employee’s salary history satisfy minimum or maximum criteria.

If enacted, the District of Columbia would join the growing list of jurisdictions to require pay transparency and ban salary history inquiries. To date, pay transparency laws are in effect in nine states and several localities, and an Illinois law takes effect January 1, 2025. Eighteen states currently restrict salary history inquiries.