Labor & Workforce Development has published regulations to implement the state's new pay and benefits transparency law (Pay Transparency Act), which went into effect in June 2025. While the proposed regulations are not yet final, they provide valuable guidance for employers as they update their job posting practices to ensure they provide the notice and transparency required under the law.
Background: The Statute
As a reminder, the Pay Transparency Act was enacted in November 2024 and went into effect on June 1, 2025. The law requires employers to adopt practices designed to increase transparency around promotion opportunities and salary and benefits information.
The law applies broadly. It covers any employer, public or private, that has 10 or more employees during 20+ calendar weeks, and does business, employs people, or :takes applications" for employment in New Jersey within the state.
There are two principal requirements of the law.
- The notice provision requires employers to make "reasonable efforts" to make existing employees aware of promotion opportunities, i.e., opportunities for a change in job title and an increase in compensation.
- The pay transparency provision requires new job postings to include "the hourly wage or salary, or a range of the hourly wage or salary, and general descriptions of benefits."
New Developments: Proposed Regulations
Recently, the state published proposed regulations to implement the Pay Transparency Act. The regulations provide specific guidance, described below, that elaborates on the statutory requirements.
Salary or Pay Range
The regulations limit employers' flexibility in posting jobs with an hourly pay or salary range. First, a range in a new job post cannot be open-ended; it must contain a minimum and a maximum. In other words, it is no longer allowed to post a job with a salary that is "$120,000 and up."
Further, New Jersey is the first state to prescribe precisely how wide a pay or salary range may be. Under the new rules, if a pay or salary range is used, the spread from the minimum to the maximum can be no more than 60 percent of the minimum. So, for example, if the minimum hourly wage is $20, then the maximum cannot be more than $32. Similarly, if the minimum annual salary is $120,000, then the maximum cannot be more than $192,000.
These restrictions, however, do not apply when the range is established through a collective bargaining agreement or other law.
Use of Third-Party Sites
Notably, employers can be liable for job advertisements posted on third-party sites. If a job posted on a third-party site violates the Pay Transparency Act, then employers can be cited when the employer (i) retains control over the content of the advertisement, or (ii) expressly agreed or contracted with the third-party site to relinquish control over the content. This means that employers are considered responsible in situations where they provide information regarding the job to the third-party site and the site creates the final content.
Liability, however, does not attach when a third-party internet site, designed to gather and aggregate job opportunity information, posts the job opening without any direct involvement of the employer.
Liability for a job post that is noncompliant can also be avoided if the advertisement contains a link that immediately takes the viewer to a site where all the required content is clearly visible.
Definitions
The regulations define key terms, including:
- "Benefits" means employee fringe benefits including health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, paid time off (including vacation, holidays, personal leave, and sick leave), training, and pension. Under the pay transparency provision, benefits must be included in job posts.
- A covered "employer" includes employment agencies.
- An employer "takes applications for employment within New Jersey" if the solicitation occurred in New Jersey and the physical location of the prospective employment is, at least, in substantial part within New Jersey.
- To make "reasonable efforts" to inform existing employees of promotion opportunities, under the notice provision, employers must conspicuously post notification of the promotional opportunity (1) in a place that is accessible to all employees in the department(s) of the employer where the promotional opportunity is open, and (2) on the employer's internet or intranet site, if they have one.
Exemptions to the Notice Provision
Employers are exempt from the notice provision for any promotion that a current employee receives based on years of experience or performance. Further, the notice provision does not apply to promotions made on an emergency basis due to an unforeseen event.
What's Next: Compliance and Enforcement
Employers should have already reviewed and updated internal promotion and job posting practices and created or revised job posting templates. If you haven't, here is your reminder to do so. And now that proposed regulations are posted, employers should take another look at their practices with the more detailed guidance in mind. Plus, given the proposed regulations, employers should also:
- Consider establishing salary ranges for all positions
- Review contracts with outside providers, i.e., third-party websites, to ensure compliance with the law
The penalties for violating the law begin at $300 for the first violation and increase to $600 for each subsequent violation. Failure to comply with the pay transparency provision for a particular job post is considered one violation regardless of the number of postings.
