Pay Transparency Expectations Are Rising
Pay transparency is no longer just a DEI initiative. For many U.S. employers, it’s now a legal requirement. As of May 2026, about 16 U.S. states plus Washington, D.C., have enacted pay transparency laws, though some laws are not yet fully effective and definitions vary by source, according to GovDoc.
Candidates now expect salary ranges upfront. A recent OpenAI report found that US workers send 3 million messages daily on ChatGPT to ask about wages, compensation, or earnings. Most of them are trying to determine how much a position pays and how that compares to the broader market. According to OpenAI, most workers look for help with pay calculations (converting hourly wages to an annual salary) to determine what job, career path, or employer might potentially pay them before they apply, negotiate, or switch.
Yet despite rising demand, roughly 4 in 10 U.S. job postings still don’t include salary information, according to Indeed Hiring Lab data cited in the same report.
Additionally, 41% of applicants surveyed by Robert Half said they hate it when job ads lack a salary range. That gap between what candidates expect and what employers disclose is where job descriptions become a compliance liability.
Why Job Descriptions Became the Compliance Pressure Point
Most job descriptions were built for internal hiring workflows, not public salary disclosure. They include only the skills and experience required for the role. Traditionally, salary has been withheld from job postings and disclosed only during interviews or at the offer stage, if candidates ask at all. When salary expectations aren’t set up front, it creates a poor candidate experience. It also extends time-to-hire due to salary negotiations and increases recruiting costs when offers are rejected at the final stage.
Multi-location hiring creates inconsistent disclosure requirements across jurisdictions. Aside from salary transparency, many states also prohibit employers from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay with colleagues. Some require employers to report pay data to government agencies. Pay for remote workers also differs from that of on-site staff, adding another layer of disclosure complexity for multi-location employers.
Recruiters and hiring managers with employees working across geographies struggle with complying with pay transparency laws. Most ATS platforms weren’t built with pay transparency in mind, so salary fields are often optional, inconsistent, or disconnected from the public-facing job posting. So recruiters often resort to manually editing job postings across the system. Without centralized workflows, inconsistent salary language across postings isn’t just an operational headache; it’s a compliance exposure.
The Real Cost of Non-Compliance
Under New York State’s Pay Transparency Law, employers with four or more workers must disclose pay ranges in all job postings. Penalties for withholding this information range from $1,000 for a first violation to $3,000 for subsequent violations. In Colorado, the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act requires any employer with at least one Colorado-based employee to disclose salary ranges in all job postings, including remote roles open to Colorado residents.
Similarly, the EU Pay Transparency Directive set a member state transposition deadline of June 7, 2026, requiring EU employers to disclose salary information before and during employment. This means most EU member states have already begun implementing the directive into national law, with some doing so ahead of the deadline. Non-compliance carries significant financial risk. According to CMS Law, penalties can reach up to 2–4% of an employer’s annual gross revenue, and the burden of proof in pay discrimination claims shifts to the employer.
It’s not just the government mandating employers to provide pay details in job postings. Candidates are also asking for it. A 2023 Gartner survey found that nearly half of candidates (44%) decided not to apply to a job in the 12 months because the job description did not include salary information.
The cost of non-compliance isn’t limited to fines. Prolonged hiring cycles and productivity losses all compound the exposure.
Why Job Description Software Is Evolving
The job description management software market is projected to nearly double, from $2.3 billion in 2025 to $4.6 billion by 2035, according to Market Research Future. The growth is driven by compliance and standardization.
Job description tools originally focused on branding, consistency, and inclusive language. These tools were designed to flag biased or exclusionary language and replace it with more inclusive alternatives, a priority that dominated TA conversations from roughly 2018 to 2023.
But growing pay transparency requirements are pushing platforms toward compliance support.
When subscribing to JD tools, look for features such as:
- Salary range prompts: flags missing or incomplete salary fields before a posting goes live.
- Jurisdiction-based guidance: alerts recruiters when a posting targets a location with active disclosure requirements
- Version control: tracks edits so there’s a record if a posting is ever audited
- Audit trails: documents who changed what and when, which matters for legal defensibility
- Centralized publishing workflows: ensure salary language is consistent across all channels and locations before posting
Not all JD software has kept up with this shift, which is where the right tooling makes a difference.
How Ongig Text Analyzer Supports Pay Transparency Workflows
Text Analyzer’s pay transparency tab lists current pay equity laws regarding salary
information in job postings and shows you which jobs are compliant in those locations (or not). For TA teams managing hundreds of postings across multiple states, this matters. Just one missed update can mean a compliance violation.
Watch the feature walkthrough below:
Moreover, Ongig:
- Scans all job descriptions every hour for missing salary information and flags non-compliant postings by location type (remote vs. onsite).
- Sends automated compliance reports via email to keep TA teams on top of non-compliant listings at scale.
- Tracks jurisdiction-specific requirements, including remote worker rules and EU Pay Transparency Directive obligations. It alerts recruiters in the job editor.
- Allows instant salary range updates across all postings in one step, eliminating manual edits across ATS systems.
- Version history and change tracking are available at the Premium tier for audit and governance needs.
What Pay Transparency Looks Like in Practice
Here are the best practices when including pay information in your job post:
- Use a range, not a single number. A range gives candidates realistic expectations while leaving room for negotiation based on experience and qualifications.
❌ Compensation commensurate with experience.
✅ Base salary: $75,000–$90,000 annually. The role is eligible for a performance bonus. Remote-friendly.
- Specify whether it’s base salary only or on-target earnings (OTE). If the role includes variable compensation (commissions, bonuses, or equity), specify whether the listed range reflects base salary or OTE. Candidates interpret these very differently.
- For remote-eligible roles, check whether the role is open to applicants in states with active pay transparency laws: California, Colorado, New York, Washington, and Illinois are among them. If so, those states’ requirements apply, and when requirements conflict, default to the most stringent.
- Pay transparency doesn’t mean you have to compete on salary alone. If the salary you actually offer is on the lower range, highlight employee benefits in your JD that are just as valuable as the paycheck. Mention if you allow remote work. A Harvard-sponsored study suggests that many job applicants are willing to accept less pay for positions that are either fully remote or on a hybrid schedule.
Why I wrote this
Pay transparency is no longer optional. It’s a legal, operational, and candidate experience requirement. The good news is that you don’t have to manually input or edit your JDs to include this important information. If you’re hiring on scale, Ongig can help you correctly display pay details to ensure compliance and attract the right candidates. Contact us to schedule a demo.
Shout-Outs:
- Why Pay Transparency Is Turning Job Descriptions Into a Compliance Problem (by OpenAI)
- Pay Transparency Laws by State (by GovDoc)
- Beyond disclosure: how the EU Pay Transparency Directive will reshape employer obligations
- (by CMS Law)
- An Overview of Exclusionary Word Flagging & Pay Compliance in Ongig’s Text Analyzer (by Ongig)
- Gartner HR Survey Finds Within 12-Month Period, Half of Candidates Have Accepted a Job Offer – and Then Backed Out Before Starting (by Gartner)
- Career Satisfaction Has Fewer Workers Planning to Change Jobs Compared to One Year Ago
- (by Robert Half)
- Home Sweet Home: How Much Do Employees Value Remote Work? (A Harvard-sponsored study)
- Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (by Colorado Department of Labor and Employment)
- Mini Experiments: Testing Salary Ranges on Job Postings (by Ongig)
- How to Make Sense of Salary Transparency (by Ongig)
