Official Site of The State of New Jersey

Under the Pay Transparency law, 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.

NJDOL’s interpretation is that the law’s reference to both internal and external advertisements for new jobs or transfer opportunities is intended to include internal job postings using methods such as physical postings, e-mail and company newsletters, as well as external postings using methods such as job search websites and print advertisements.

Under the Pay Transparency law, the posting for a new job or transfer opportunity can include the exact hourly wage or salary, or a range of the hourly range 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 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.”

Importantly, under the proposed Departmental rules, employers would be prohibited from including a pay range where the spread between the starting point and top end of the pay range is more than 60% of the pay range starting point.

• For example, an employer should avoid a pay range of “$100,000 to $165,000 a year,” since the spread between the starting point and top end of the pay range ($65,000) is 65% of the starting point ($100,000).

Examples of pay ranges in keeping with the Departmental rules:

• Hourly wage or salary pay range:
  • Line Cook: $27 - $29 per hour
  • Registered Nurse: $95,000 - $115,000 per year

Note: In both examples above, the spread between the starting point and top end of the pay range is less than 60% of the pay range starting point.

Examples of pay ranges that should be avoided under the proposed Departmental rules:

• Hourly wage or salary pay range:
  • Line Cook: $27 - $44 per hour ($27 x 160% = $43.20; anything over $43.20 is outside the recommended 60% threshold)
  • o Registered Nurse: $95,000 - $155,000 per year ($95,000 x 160% = $152,000; anything over $152,000 is outside the recommended 60% threshold)

Under the Pay Transparency law, the posting for a new job or transfer opportunity must include a general description of the benefits offered. The proposed Departmental rules would define the term “benefits” to mean employee fringe benefits including, but not limited to, the following:

• Health insurance;
• Life insurance;
• Disability insurance;
• Paid time off (including vacation, holidays, personal leave and sick leave);
• Training; and
• Retirement benefits and/or pension benefits.

Job postings should list the general description of the benefits offered and may not use phrases such as “great benefits offered,” or “health insurance and more.”

Under the Pay Transparency law, postings for new jobs and transfer opportunities must include a general description of other compensation programs which an employee would be eligible for.

Under the proposed Departmental rules, the phrase, “other compensation programs” would be defined to mean methods of compensation other than the payment of traditional wages, such as – but not limited to – commissions, bonuses and profit-sharing.

Under the Pay Transparency law, an employer must use reasonable efforts to make current employees in its affected departments aware of promotion opportunities.

The proposed Departmental rules would clarify that this means reasonable efforts must be made by the employer to announce, post, or otherwise make known the existence of the promotional opportunity to each employee in the department(s) of the employer to which the promotional opportunity is open.

The proposed Departmental rules would define the term “reasonable efforts” to mean:

• Posting notification of the promotional opportunity in places within the employer’s workplace where all employees in affected department(s) can see them, and
• Posting notification of the promotional opportunity on the employer’s internet site or intranet site, in the event the employer has one

The proposed Departmental rules would define the term “promotion” to mean a change in job title and an increase in compensation.

The proposed Departmental rules would define the term “transfer” to mean a change in job title and no increase in compensation.

Under the Pay Transparency law, any employer who violates the law can be assessed a penalty up to $300 for the first violation, and up to $600 for each subsequent violation.

Under the Pay Transparency law, where an employer advertises for one job opening across multiple platforms—e.g., on several different websites, newspapers, and social media—and none of those postings complies with the law, all postings for the one job opening would be considered a single violation and be subject to a penalty.

However, if an employer advertises for more than one job opening on a single platform—e.g., one opening for a Business Analyst and one opening for a Senior Project Manager—and none of those postings complies with the law, the posting for each job opening would be considered a separate violation and be subject to a penalty per posting.

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 Pay Transparency law.

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 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 Pay Transparency 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 presentar reclamos por salarios no pagados.

No. Under the Pay Transparency law, 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, but only if it also does business in New Jersey or takes applications for employment within New Jersey.

Under the proposed Departmental rules, “take applications for employment within New Jersey” means both that the job solicitation occurred in New Jersey and that the physical location of the prospective employment is in whole, or in substantial part, 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 Pay Transparency law, even if the employer is advertising nationally or accepting applications from anywhere in the country.

The proposed Departmental rules would clarify that when an advertisement for a new job or transfer opportunity with the employer appears on a third-party site, the employer shall be cited for a violation(s) of the law only when the employer either retains control over the content of the advertisement that appears on the third-party site, or has expressly agreed or contracted with the third-party site to relinquish control over the content of the advertisement that appears on the third-party site.

If the third-party job board website is the “employer,” then it may be liable for penalties under the Pay Transparency law. The most likely scenario where that might occur is when the third-party job board website is considered an “employment agency.” The Pay Transparency law expressly includes employment agencies within its definition of the term “employer.”

Under proposed Departmental rules, an “employment agency” would include any person who, through its agents or otherwise, for a fee, charge, or commission:

1. Procures, or obtains, or offers, promises or attempts to procure, obtain, or assist in procuring or obtaining employment for a job seeker or employees for an employer;
2. Supplies job seekers to employers seeking employees on a part-time or temporary assignment basis who has not filed as a temporary help service pursuant to the provisions of N.J.S.A. 56:8-1.1;
3. Procures, obtains, offers, promises or attempts to procure or obtain employment or engagements for performing artists;
4. Acts as a placement firm, career counseling service, or resume service;
5. Acts as a nurses' registry, as defined hereinafter;
6. Places health care personnel in private homes or on private duty; or
7. Places household workers in domestic positions, including salaried "nannies" or "au pairs."

This definition in the proposed Departmental rules is the same as the one used by the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs (available here) for licensing and regulating employment agencies. Furthermore, an employment agency may be covered under the law, whether its services are provided in-person or remotely or virtually via the Internet.

Under the proposed Departmental rules, if the employer had 10 or more employees who work over 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or previous calendar year, whether those employees work inside or outside of New Jersey, then the employer is covered.

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 Pay Transparency law requires temp agencies to provide this information for temporary employment at the time of interview or hire for a new job opening.

Under the proposed Departmental rules, the term “reasonable efforts” is defined to mean the following:

• Posting notifications of the promotional opportunity in places within the employer’s workplace where all employees in affected department(s) can see them; and
• Posting notification of the promotional opportunity on the employer’s internet site or intranet site, in the event the employer has one.

Where an employer advertises for one job opening across multiple platforms—e.g., on several different websites, newspapers, and social media—and none of its postings complies with the law, all postings for the 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 second or subsequent violation of the law.

Where an employer advertises for more than one job opening on a single platform—e.g., one opening for a Business Analyst and one opening for a Senior Project Manager—and none of those postings complies with the law, the posting for 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 each subsequent violation.

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 Pay Transparency law going forward. The employer will be given an opportunity to contest the NJDOL’s penalty assessment.