COLORADO — At the start of this year, a new law went into effect in Colorado. The Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, which aims to narrow pay differences among men and women.
The General Assembly passed the law in 2019, and a portion of the legislation includes a requirement to list pay and benefit expectations on job listings.
The salary listings- something garnering attention nationwide. It's also creating some challenges for employers and job seekers. In some cases national companies posting jobs for remote work are excluding Colorado from job listings.
"The act has requirements that pay has to be disclosed, because it's harder to discriminate or have disparities in pay when pay isn't secret," Scott Moss, Dir. of Labor Standards and Statistics with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment said.
Remote jobs aren't exempted from the new law. Moss says his office has been spending the last seven months educating companies on the new law.
"This is actually not a loophole, because they act says that all employers must post jobs," Moss said.
The department has received dozens of complaints about companies not posting salary ranges or companies unsure of the law. Moss says the focus right now is educating employers on the law change. However, the law does allow for fines to be issued ranging anywhere from $500 to $10,0000.
Since the law went into effect, fewer than one percent of companies are not complying. Moss says most companies when they learn are willing to comply.
"Many labor law violations in the world are hard to find, labor law violations in public job postings are easy to find, so we're contacting all the employers with these postings," Moss said.
