New Jersey Issues Proposed Pay Transparency Rules

Author: Emily Scace, Brightmine Senior Legal Editor

October 31, 2025

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development has issued proposed rules under the state's pay transparency law that went into effect June 1, 2025.

Under the New Jersey pay transparency law, an internal or external job posting must include the hourly wage or salary (or a range) and a general description of benefits and other compensation if the hiring employer:

  • Has 10 or more employees for 20 or more calendar weeks in a year; and
  • Does business, employs persons or takes job applications within New Jersey.

The proposed rules would clarify that:

  • For the purposes of the 10-employee coverage threshold, employees within and outside New Jersey are included in the employer's headcount; and
  • To "take applications for employment within New Jersey" means both that the solicitation occurred in New Jersey and the physical location of the prospective employment is wholly or substantially within New Jersey.

The proposed rules would also implement some numerical parameters around the breadth of posted pay ranges. The spread between the minimum and maximum amount in a posted pay range would not be allowed to exceed 60 percent of the minimum. In other words, for a job with a minimum pay rate of $100,000 per year, the difference between the bottom and the top of the posted pay range could not exceed $60,000. An exception would apply when the pay range is established through a collective bargaining agreement or by law, rule or local ordinance.

Like pay transparency laws in Colorado and a few other states, New Jersey's law requires employers to make reasonable efforts to inform existing employees of promotion opportunities before making a promotion decision. The proposed rules would specify that "reasonable efforts" under the promotion notification provision means:

  • Conspicuously posting notification of the opportunity in a place within the workplace that is accessible to all employees in the relevant departments; and
  • If the employer has a website or intranet site for exclusive use by employees and to which all employees have access, posting notice of the opportunity there.

The rules also address employer liability for third-party posting, define various terms, establish enforcement procedures and discuss applicability to temporary help firms and consulting firms.

Comment on the proposed rules is open until November 14, 2025.