Official Site of The State of New Jersey

Employers must provide the following information in any posting for new jobs or transfer opportunities that it advertises externally or internally:

1. The hourly wage or salary of the position, or a range of the hourly wage or salary;
2. A general description of the benefits; and
3. Any other compensation programs for which the employee would be eligible.

The job posting can include the exact hourly wage or salary, or a range of the hourly wage or salary being offered for the position.

A pay range should have a starting point and ending point. For example, the job posting should say that workers will earn between $25 and $35 per hour.

The job posting should not leave out the bottom range, such as “up to $35.00 per hour.”

The job posting also should not leave out the top end of the pay range, such as “$70,000 per year and up.”

Examples of pay ranges in keeping with the NJPBTA:

• Hourly wage or salary pay range:
  • Line Cook: $27.00 - $29.00 per hour
  • Registered Nurse: $95,000 - $115,000 per year

• Combined salary and commission:
  • If the employer posts a job that is compensated in part on a salary basis and in part by commission, the employer should include the rate or rate range:
    • Salesperson: $65,000 per year base pay plus 8-10% commission per unit sold

• Piece rate pay:
  • If the employer posts a job that is compensated by piece-rate, the employer should include the agreed piece-rate or wage scale plus agreed piece-rate:
    • Agricultural worker: $0.65-$0.85 per bucket of tomatoes picked
    • Agricultural worker: $0.65-$0.85 per bucket of tomatoes picked or $20 per hour, whichever is higher

The job posting must include a general description of the benefits offered to potential employees. Job postings should list the general description of the benefits offered and should not use phrases such as “great benefits offered,” or “health insurance and more.”

The job posting must include a general description of other compensation programs which an employee would be eligible for. This generally means compensation other than the payment of traditional wages.

An employer must use reasonable efforts to make all current employees in its affected departments aware of promotion opportunities, whether those opportunities are advertised internally within the employer or externally on internet-based advertisements, postings, printed flyers, or other similar advertisements. Any promotion for a current employee that is awarded on the basis of years of experience or performance shall not be subject to the notification requirements.

Any employer who violates the NJPBTA can be assessed a penalty up to $300 for the first violation, and up to $600 for each subsequent violation.

Under the law, if an employer publishes the same job posting in multiple places at the same time – for example, in a newspaper, job search websites, and social media – NJDOL must consider these posts collectively as one violation of the NJPBTA.

However, if an employer advertises multiple roles in its organization at the same time, NJDOL will assess one penalty for each role where the job posting fails to comply with the NJPBTA.

Complaints can be filed online through our secure system or by mail or fax. In the section titled “Complaint Reason Details,” please check “Other” and enter information about your complaint regarding a violation of the NJPTBA.

A trusted person, including a representative from a union or community-based organization, can help file a complaint or e-mail us on your behalf.

See our helpful guide for worker rights organizations to submit wage and hour complaints. | Haz un clic aquí por nuestro guía para organizaciones de derechos laborales para presentar reclamos por salarios no pagados.

For more details, contact us. NJDOL has resources and multilingual staff who can help. We will work with you to make sure you can fully engage with us during the entire process.

The complaint should include:

• A statement about when and how you learned about the alleged violation of the law.
• A copy of the job posting missing the required information about the pay, benefits, or other compensation.
• If the job posting is available online, please print or download a copy of the posting, showing the date and web address where it was published. Because websites often change or may be taken down, providing a web link alone may not be enough to support a complaint as a web link may expire before an NJDOL investigator can review the posting.
• For promotional opportunities: If a posting or notice was not made available to a worker in an affected department who should have received the posting, please include that information in the statement of the facts section.
• Temporary workers should include information or supporting documentation from the time of interview or hire, as temporary help service firms are required to provide information about the pay, benefits and other compensation programs at this stage of the hiring process.

See our helpful guide for worker rights organizations to submit wage and hour complaints. | Haz un clic aquí por nuestro guía para organizaciones de derechos laborales para presentar reclamos por salarios no pagados.

No. Under the NJPBTA, an employer may still be covered if it has 10 or more employees over 20 calendar weeks, whether those employees work inside or outside of New Jersey. However, if none of the employer’s employees work inside New Jersey, the employer will only be covered if it does business in New Jersey or takes applications for employment within New Jersey.

It depends. If the employer has the minimum number of employees to be covered by the law and the employer does business, employes persons, or takes applications for employment within New Jersey, then yes, its job postings must comply with the NJPBTA, even if the employer is advertising nationally or accepting applications from anywhere in the country.

It depends. A third-party job board website may be liable for violating the NJPBTA if it is operated by a job placement and referral agency or an employment agency. Under the NJPBTA, job placement and referral agencies and other employment agencies are also required to comply with the requirements of the law.

No. Temporary help service firms or consulting firms (temp agencies) are not required to include the hourly wage or salary, a general description of benefits and other compensation programs that are eligible to an applicant in a job posting. However, the NJPBTA requires temp agencies to provide this information for temporary employment at the time of interview or hire for a new job opening.

Where an employer advertises for one job opening across multiple platforms and none of those postings complies with the law, that one job opening would be considered a single violation and be subject to a penalty of up to $300 if it is the employer’s first violation and up to $600 if it is the employer’s subsequent violation of the law.

Where an employer advertises for multiple job openings on a single platform and none of those postings complies with the law, each job opening would be considered a separate violation and be subject to a penalty per posting of up to $300 for the first violation and up to $600 for subsequent violations.

An employer may offer pay, benefits and compensation to an applicant for a position that differs from that which the current employees receive for many reasons. In some cases, pay, benefits and compensation may be different between applicants and employees due to experience, skill, education, training and other job-related factors.

However, an employer may not differentiate pay or benefits between employees in a discriminatory manner. An employer may not differentiate employees’ pay, benefits or compensation based on a person’s race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability, and other protected characteristics. Although a job posting may comply with the NJPBTA, a posting that reveals a pay differential between current and prospective employees may, in some cases, be evidence of unlawful discrimination.

An employee who believes they are the victim of pay discrimination can file a complaint with the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights. More information on the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act may be found here.

The NJDOL will review the complaint and any supporting documentation, including the text of any job posting, to determine if the complaint warrants an investigation by NJDOL. If any violation has occurred, the NJDOL may notify the employer of the violation and assess an appropriate penalty. NJDOL will also provide information on how the employer can comply with the law going forward. The employer will be given an opportunity to contest the NJDOL’s penalty assessment.