Transparency laws spread, combatting inequity in compensation

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Lawmakers across the nation are adopting a crop of wage transparency laws, imposing new obligations on employers in an effort to stamp out inequities in compensation. But it remains to be seen whether more information about other people’s earnings will make pay more equitable, or reduce the number of salary-discrimination lawsuits.

State and local governments have been adopting increasingly far-reaching measures in the name of making compensation more equitable. And while those measures are far from universal, large corporations doing business in all 50 states are turning the laws passed in states such as New York and California into a default national standard, some observers said. States with wage transparency laws include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Nevada, Rhode Island and Washington.