Salary Transparency Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Salary Transparency Act creates federal wage-disclosure rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Employers would have to disclose the wage or wage range in public and internal postings for employment opportunities. If no posting has been made available to an applicant, the employer must disclose the wage or range before discussing compensation and whenever the applicant asks. Employers must also disclose an employee's wage or range for the employee's position at hire, at least annually, and on request. The bill makes it unlawful to refuse to interview, hire, promote, or employ an employee or applicant, or otherwise retaliate, because the person exercised these disclosure rights. Wage range includes wages, salary, and other forms of compensation offered for the job.
Who Benefits and How
Job applicants benefit because employers must disclose compensation before salary negotiations when no posting is available. Current employees benefit because they can request and receive the wage range for their own position at hire, annually, and on request. Workers comparing promotion opportunities benefit from internal postings that include wages or wage ranges. Pay-equity advocates benefit because hidden compensation ranges become harder to use in unequal bargaining.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Covered employers must update job postings, applicant workflows, annual employee disclosures, and anti-retaliation policies. Human resources staff must track wage ranges and respond to applicant and employee requests before compensation discussions. Managers lose leverage from withholding salary information during hiring or promotion decisions. Department of Labor wage-hour staff must enforce the new FLSA disclosure rights.
Key Provisions
- Requires public and internal job postings to include wage or wage-range information.
- Requires wage disclosure to applicants before compensation discussions when no posting is available.
- Requires wage-range disclosure to employees at hire, annually, and on request.
- Prohibits retaliation against applicants or employees for exercising wage-disclosure rights.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act to require wage or wage-range disclosure in job postings, applicant discussions, and employee position disclosures, and to prohibit retaliation for exercising those rights.
Key Policy Areas
Labor, Wage Transparency, Employment
Primary Purpose
Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act to require wage or wage-range disclosure in job postings, applicant discussions, and employee position disclosures, and to prohibit retaliation for exercising those rights.
Policy Domains
Resolution provisions
Identified Gains
- Job applicants
- Current employees
- Workers seeking promotions
- Pay-equity advocates
Identified Costs
- Covered employers
- Human resources staff
- Hiring managers
- Department of Labor wage-hour staff
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMs. Norton introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Introduced in House
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR E198)
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Current employees, Job applicants, Workers seeking promotions
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology