As CMM’s legal blog has explored, New York State enacted the New York Pay Transparency Law (the “Law”), which requires most New York employers to provide salary ranges for all advertised jobs and promotions in New York State, effective as of September 17, 2023. However, Governor Kathy Hochul recently signed an amendment to the Law (the “Amendment”)[1] that changes it in three major ways:
1. What constitutes a job “performed” in New York
Previously, the Law simply stated that the advertisement requirements would apply to any position that “can or will be performed in the state of New York.” Now, the Amendment explains that the Law does not apply to jobs solely because they “can” hypothetically be performed in New York. Instead, covered advertisements for jobs, promotions, or transfer opportunities will be those that:
- “will physically be performed, at least in part, in the state of New York”; and
- “will physically be performed outside of New York but reports to a supervisor, office, or other work site in New York.”
Essentially, the Law will apply to jobs where the employee will be physically located in New York in some capacity (whether full-time or as part of hybrid work), as well as to those who would be out-of-state employees, but report to a supervising contact of the covered employer who is physically located within the jurisdiction of New York State, similar to the New York City Pay Transparency Law.
2. Elimination of Recordkeeping Obligations
Furthermore, the Amendment wholly eliminates the Law’s recordkeeping requirement regarding the “history of compensation ranges for each job, promotion, or transfer opportunity and the job descriptions for such positions,” if they exist. While the Amendment has abolished this obligation, covered employers should consider maintaining such compensation records to ensure best practices.
3. Defining the Term “Advertise”
Lastly, the Amendment clarifies the previous ambiguity in the Law to provide a more concrete statutory definition of the term “advertise,” which is now defined as “mak[ing] available to a pool of potential applicants for internal or public viewing, including electronically, a written description of an employment opportunity.” Therefore, the Amendment confirms that the Law’s salary disclosure requirement applies to both internal and external written job postings and is thus silent on word-of-mouth/verbal communications.
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[1] Senate Bill S1326; https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/s1326.
