14 jurisdictions · thresholds · updated for Maine and Virginia
Pay transparency laws by state: which states require a salary range in job postings in 2026
Two states changed the map this summer. Virginia started requiring a range on July 1 and Maine on July 29, and most of the lists still circulating online predate both. Here is the current picture, the employer size that triggers each rule, and what has to sit next to the number.
Last updated August 2026 · US market · Not legal advice
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The short answer
Thirteen states plus Washington, D.C. require a good faith salary range inside the job posting itself as of August 2026: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Connecticut, Nevada and Rhode Island require the range at a set point in the hiring process instead of in the advertisement. Employer size thresholds run from a single employee in Colorado to fifty in Hawaii, and Maryland and Virginia have no headcount minimum at all. Remote postings are generally covered wherever the work could be performed, so a remote first employer ends up complying with the strictest rule that touches any candidate. Delaware joins the posting group on September 26, 2027.
Range required in the ad
13 states plus D.C.
Required, but later in the process
3 states
Lowest trigger
1 employee
Range required in the posting
Which states require a salary range in job postings
These are the jurisdictions where the number has to appear in the advertisement itself. Read the third column carefully. In seven of them the range alone is not enough, because benefits or other compensation have to be published alongside it, and that is the most common way an employer who thinks they have complied has not.
| State | Employer threshold | What must be disclosed | Remote roles | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 15 or more employees | The pay scale, meaning a good faith estimate of the range the employer expects to pay for the role | Certain remote roles are covered | SB 642 tightened the definition from January 1, 2026 |
| Colorado | Any employer with 1 employee in state | The pay range, other compensation, a general description of benefits, and the date the application window closes | Covered | In force |
| Hawaii | 50 or more employees | An hourly rate or salary range | Treatment varies, confirm before posting | In force |
| Illinois | 15 or more employees | The pay scale and a general description of benefits | Roles reporting to a supervisor or office in Illinois are covered | In force |
| Maine | 10 or more employees | The range of pay the employer anticipates relying on. A commission-only role must state that compensation is commission based | Covered where the work is performed in state | Effective July 29, 2026 |
| Maryland | All employers, no headcount minimum | The wage range, a general description of benefits, and any other compensation offered | Covered if the work will be physically performed at least in part in Maryland | In force since October 1, 2024 |
| Massachusetts | 25 or more employees | The pay range | Covered | In force |
| Minnesota | 30 or more employees at one or more Minnesota sites | The starting salary range or a fixed rate, plus a general description of benefits | Covered | In force |
| New Jersey | 10 or more employees over 20 or more calendar weeks | The pay range, benefits and other compensation | Certain remote roles are covered | In force |
| New York | 4 or more employees | The compensation range, plus the job description if one exists | Roles reporting to a supervisor or office in New York are covered | In force |
| Vermont | 5 or more employees | The compensation or the compensation range | Covered | In force |
| Virginia | All employers, no headcount minimum | The wage or salary, or a good faith minimum and maximum range, in public and internal postings | The statute does not say whether it reaches roles merely performable in Virginia | Effective July 1, 2026 |
| Washington | 15 or more employees | The salary range or a fixed wage, other compensation, and a general description of benefits | Covered | In force |
| Washington, D.C. | 1 or more employees | The minimum and maximum projected pay, plus the healthcare benefits on offer | Covered | In force |
California
SB 642 narrowed what counts as a pay scale and extended the recovery period to six years, so a band set casually in 2026 can still be argued about in 2032.
Colorado
The broadest rule in the country and the one most employers trip over, because a single Colorado employee is enough and the posting has to carry benefits and a closing date, not just a number.
Hawaii
The highest headcount threshold of any in-posting state, so small employers hiring into Hawaii often fall outside it.
Illinois
Illinois also requires employers to tell current employees about promotion opportunities within 14 days of posting the role externally.
Maine
The newest rule in the country. HB54 was signed on April 24, 2026 and covers internal postings for transfers and promotions as well as external hiring.
Maryland
No size threshold at all, so a two person company hiring one Maryland worker is covered on the same terms as a national employer.
Massachusetts
Larger employers also file wage data reports, which is a separate obligation from the posting rule.
Minnesota
Minnesota does not allow an open ended range, so "$90,000 and up" does not satisfy the rule.
New Jersey
The threshold counts employees over a period rather than on a single day, so seasonal staffing can pull an employer into scope.
New York
The job description clause catches employers out. If you wrote one, it goes in the posting.
Vermont
Commission and tipped roles have their own disclosure wording rather than a dollar range.
Virginia
SB 215 also bans asking for or relying on salary history. It carries a 15 business day window to correct a non compliant posting, which is the most forgiving cure provision in the country.
Washington
Washington runs a five business day cure period for a first violation, and that grace expires on July 27, 2027.
Washington, D.C.
D.C. also bars employers from asking a candidate about pay history at any point.
Required, but not in the ad
States that require a salary range on request rather than in the posting
Employers file these three as "no rule here" and then breach them, because the obligation lands mid process when nobody is thinking about compliance any more. Rhode Island in particular is widely and wrongly listed as a posting state.
Connecticut
All employers
On the applicant's request, or before an offer of compensation is made, whichever comes first
Also owed to existing employees when they change roles.
Nevada
All employers
Automatically after an interview, without the candidate having to ask
Extends to promotions and transfers for current employees.
Rhode Island
All employers
On request, and in any case before compensation is discussed
Also owed at the time of hire and whenever an employee moves into a new position.
Already signed, not yet in force
Delaware, 26 or more employees, from September 26, 2027. Will require the pay range plus a general description of benefits in the posting, putting Delaware with the in posting group.
What goes wrong
Four ways a careful employer still publishes a non compliant posting
Publishing the number and nothing else
Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Washington and D.C. all require something alongside the range: a general description of benefits, other compensation, and in Colorado the date applications close. A posting that carries a perfect band and no benefits line still fails in those states.
Treating a wide band as the safe option
A $60,000 spread on a $90,000 job reads as an attempt to disclose nothing, and California's 2026 amendment exists to make that harder to defend. Harvard Business Review reported in February 2026 that very wide ranges can actually deter women from applying, so the cautious choice costs you candidates as well as cover.
Assuming your headquarters sets the rule
Coverage generally follows where the work happens or where the role reports, not where your office is. A fully remote US role can pull in Colorado, New York and Washington at once, and the practical answer is to comply with the strictest rule that touches any candidate you would consider.
Forgetting internal postings
Maine, Nevada, Virginia and Illinois all reach promotions, transfers or internal notices in some form. Employers publish a compliant external ad and then send an internal note about the same role with no band attached.
Setting the number
How to set a salary range you can defend
A good faith range is the band you actually expect to pay, tied to something you could point at afterwards: your existing pay scale, a range you set for the same role last year, what comparable employees earn today, or the budget finance approved for the seat. Every one of the newer statutes describes it in roughly those terms, which means the test is evidential rather than aesthetic. You do not need a perfect number. You need a reason.
The safer construction is a band you can explain in one sentence. Something like "$95,000 to $120,000, and we hire above the midpoint for candidates who have owned paid budgets over $100,000 a month" tells a candidate exactly where they sit, satisfies the good faith test comfortably, and cuts the applications from people who were never going to accept the money. If you are not sure where the band should start, the published averages for nineteen roles on our 2026 marketing salary guide are the kind of evidence you would want on hand if anyone ever asked how you set it, and the ladder on marketing job levels shows which level the seat you are pricing actually sits at.
Width is where most bands go wrong in both directions. Too tight and you cannot hire a stronger candidate than you planned for. Too wide and you have disclosed nothing, weakened your good faith position, and, per Harvard Business Review in February 2026, made the role less likely to attract women. Roughly 15% to 25% around the midpoint covers a single seat. If the req genuinely spans two levels, say that in the ad rather than hiding it in the spread.
One practical note on remote roles. Coverage follows the work, not the head office, so a national remote posting usually inherits the strictest rule among the states you would hire from. The path of least resistance is to write one compliant version, with the range plus a benefits line, and use it everywhere. That is covered in more depth in whether remote job postings need a salary range.
Where the market already is
- 53.6%
- of US job postings now disclose a pay range, up 5.0 points year over year.
- 44%
- of candidates say they are unlikely to apply to a posting with no range at all.
- 82%
- call pay transparency essential or important when they evaluate an employer.
- 95
- applicants per US posting on average in 2025, up from about 46 in 2021. A published band is one of the few filters that works before you read any of them.
The process
Five steps to set a band you can put in the posting
Carried over from the guide this page replaced. The whole thing takes an afternoon, and the last step is the one that matters years later.
Define the scope before the title
Write down what the role owns: which channels, how much budget, how many reports, which number it is judged on. Pay tracks scope far more reliably than it tracks titles, and the title should follow the scope rather than lead it.
Pull at least three published averages, never one
Sources disagree enormously because they measure different populations. Posting derived data from Indeed and ZipRecruiter reads low, self reported data from Glassdoor and Built In reads high, and modelled data from Salary.com reads highest of all. For a marketing manager those published averages run from $83,488 to $121,657. For a CMO the spread between the lowest and highest published average is $213,062.
Set the midpoint inside the cluster
Take the middle of where the credible sources land, then adjust for your metro (major US cities still add roughly 10% to 25%), your industry and your stage. A well funded startup and a family manufacturer do not pay the same for the same job.
Set the width by what genuinely varies
For most individual contributor roles, 15% to 25% around the midpoint is a defensible spread, so a $100,000 job posts well at $90,000 to $112,000. Executive bands are legitimately wider because scope varies more at the top. Wider than that anywhere else and you should be able to name the variable that justifies it.
Write down the rationale
One paragraph in a shared document: the sources, the midpoint logic, the adjustment you made and why. California's six year recovery window means a band set this year can still be questioned in 2032, and ten minutes of writing now is what turns it from a guess into something defensible.
That last step is worth the ten minutes. If you hire across several states you are already tracking a set of overlapping obligations by jurisdiction, and the same discipline that keeps a written record of which rules apply to you is what turns a pay band from a guess into something you can still defend when someone asks about it years later. Once the number is settled, the rest of the ad is a separate job, and the marketing job description library has the ready to adapt postings to build it around.
Frequently asked
Pay transparency questions employers actually search
What states require salary range in job posting?
Thirteen states plus Washington, D.C. require the range in the posting itself as of August 2026: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Connecticut, Nevada and Rhode Island require disclosure at a set point in the process instead. Delaware joins the posting group on September 26, 2027.
Do you have to include a salary range in a job posting?
In much of the United States, yes. Eighteen states and Washington, D.C. have some form of pay transparency law, and thirteen states plus D.C. require the number in the advertisement. Whether you are covered depends on where your employees work, how many you have, and increasingly on where a remote candidate could do the job.
What counts as a good faith salary range?
A good faith range is the band you genuinely expect to pay for the role, tied to something real: your existing pay scale, a previously set range, what comparable employees actually earn, or the budget approved for the seat. It is not a legally survivable fiction stretched wide enough to cover any outcome.
Do pay transparency laws apply to remote jobs?
Usually yes. Most states reach a remote role that could be performed in the state or that reports into an office there, so a national remote posting tends to pick up the strictest rule among the states you would hire from. Virginia's 2026 statute is silent on the point, which leaves it genuinely unresolved.
How wide should a salary range be in a job posting?
Tight enough that you could defend it in one sentence. A spread of roughly 15% to 25% around the midpoint fits most single roles. Go wider only when the req genuinely spans two levels, and say so in the ad, because an unexplained wide band both weakens the good faith argument and thins your applicant pool.
What happens if you do not post a salary range?
Penalties across the country run from about $100 to $250,000 per violation depending on the jurisdiction and whether the conduct repeats. Virginia allows civil penalties up to $1,000 for a first violation and up to $5,000 after that, plus a private suit within a year. Several states let a first violation be cured.
Can you be sued for a misleading salary range?
In some states, yes. Several statutes create a private right of action alongside regulator enforcement, and California extended its recovery period to six years from January 1, 2026. The exposure is usually not the posting itself but the pattern it evidences when a band never matches what anyone is actually paid.
Can you post a salary range as "competitive" or "depends on experience"?
Not in the states that require a range. "Competitive", "DOE" and "negotiable" are exactly what these statutes were written to eliminate and they do not satisfy a good faith estimate anywhere. In states without a mandate they are legal but counterproductive, since they signal to strong candidates that the number is probably disappointing.
Do pay transparency laws apply to promotions and internal roles?
In several states, yes. Colorado has specific rules for internal promotional opportunities, Illinois requires employers to tell current employees about promotions within 14 days of posting externally, and Maine, Nevada and Virginia all reach internal postings or transfers. Treating internal moves as exempt is one of the more common compliance gaps.
How often should you review the range?
At least once a year, and always before reposting a role you failed to fill. Median time to fill for nonexecutive US roles is 39 calendar days, so a search running well past that is usually a pricing problem rather than a supply problem. The band is the first thing to examine, ahead of the job description and the channels.
Should you include a salary range if your state does not require it?
Generally yes. About 53.6% of US postings now show a range, up 5.0 points year over year, and 44% of candidates say they are unlikely to apply without one. Withholding the band in a market where half your competitors publish it mostly buys you applications from people who will leave at the offer stage.
This page is a practical summary of published employer guidance, not legal advice. Thresholds, effective dates and penalties change, and several of the rules above changed this year. Confirm the position for the states you actually hire in with your own counsel before you publish a posting.
Band set? Publish it where marketers are looking.
MarketerJob lists marketing roles and nothing else, and every card carries its salary band. A 30 day post is $199, with no percentage of the hire.
Keep going
2026 marketing salary guide
Published averages for nineteen US marketing roles, so the band you post has evidence behind it.
Marketing job levels
The seven level ladder and thirty titles mapped to a level, so you price the seat before you post it.
Do remote job postings need a salary range?
Which state's rule applies when the role is remote across the whole country.
Marketing job description library
The rest of the posting, once the compensation line is settled.
Marketing team structure
The costed org chart at five company sizes, with a pay band on every seat.
What it costs to hire each marketing role
Agency fees, salary bands and the direct posting route, role by role.