Equity & Compliance
Pay transparency
Also called: salary transparency, pay disclosure
Practices and laws that require or encourage disclosing pay information to employees, candidates, and the public.
Pay transparency means making compensation information visible — typically a pay range on job postings, sometimes pay range on internal promotions, and sometimes individual pay scales.
State laws driving pay transparency in the US include California (2023), Colorado (2021), Washington (2023), New York (2023), Massachusetts (2025), and many others. The general direction is toward broader and stricter disclosure.
For comp teams, pay transparency raises the stakes on every pay decision. Posted ranges are public claims; employees compare ranges across roles; pay differences are visible. Defensible pay ranges, current market data, and documented methodology become essential rather than optional.
See our deep guide: Pay Transparency Laws by State.