Q&A
Pay transparency law implementation challenges and enforcement
1:41:40
·
3 min
Council Member Nantasha M. Williams inquires about the implementation of the pay transparency law, including trends, challenges, and employer feedback. CCHR representatives discuss the law's impact on employer practices, enforcement structure, and administrative challenges.
- The law has a unique 'cure period' for violations, which affects how it's enforced compared to other protections.
- Some employers have had questions about implementing the law, particularly regarding salary ranges and good faith compliance.
- The commission faces administrative challenges in balancing enforcement between large and small employers due to the standardized 30-day cure period.
Nantasha M. Williams
1:41:40
There has been a nationwide trend toward increasing pay transparency for employees and potential employees in recent years, including in New York City where the council passed local law 32 of 2022 to increase pay transparency and job listings.
1:41:52
The committee also heard testimony today about a bill that would further expand pay transparency requirements.
1:41:57
Could you share a little bit more about what trends and challenges CCHR has encountered so far in implementing the pay transparency law?
1:42:06
You already answered this about inquiries.
1:42:12
And then lastly, is the commission aware of any challenges encountered by employers or employment agencies in implementing the law?
1:42:19
So has anyone come and expressed why something is a challenge?
1:42:23
And then overall, if you have anything else you care to share about trends and challenges around the law.
JoAnn Kamuf Ward
1:42:31
Yeah.
1:42:32
So I'll say, I mean, anecdotally, when the law went into effect, there's a lot of questions about what if I mean, this goes to some of the example you gave before, chair.
1:42:42
What if we find an amazing candidate and we had this range and what do we do then?
1:42:47
And this, you know, this law is about the posting.
1:42:52
And I think some of the record keeping provisions address this.
1:42:55
Right?
1:42:55
People could always pay a different amount.
1:42:57
I think, now, paying a different amount is gonna raise a bunch of questions, which I think is the goal of the law in the first place.
1:43:05
But I think anytime there's a change in the law, there has to be a change in employer practice, and that is easier for some employers than than others, and that, you know, we have to recognize there's sometimes an an employer employer burden.
1:43:19
I think there were a a number of questions about what will be considered good faith, but we've seen in practice the ranges have not been super outlandish, really, since some in the beginning, I think, got a lot of media coverage.
1:43:33
But I I will say one thing, and the the deputy commissioner mentioned this a bit.
1:43:39
The the enforcement structure for this law is different than the other protections in our law.
1:43:43
Right?
1:43:43
There's a there's a cure period.
1:43:45
So what happens is a employer receives notice of a violation via a complaint, and then they have time to cure it.
1:43:52
So we've seen people curing it, and that it that is good, but it means that it's kind of it's not in sync with other protections.
1:44:00
So, say, you were gonna come to us because you've experienced gender based discrimination and you also had a salary transparency violation, like, those things are not gonna move to together in the same way because one has a cure period and and one doesn't.
1:44:14
So it just changes the enforcement strategy.
Katherine Carroll
1:44:19
It also has an impact on our ability to use the agency discretion on when we put resources towards extremely large employers, Goldman Sachs from your example, to a smaller employer.
1:44:32
They all have the same 30 day period.
1:44:34
And in order to trigger it, we have an administrative burden to put out the formal notice and then process when they have, in fact, cured it rather than some of our other areas.
1:44:44
Fair chance, I think, is the perfect analogy because it's another area where there's there were a lot of per se violations just in advertisements right after it went into effect.
1:44:54
In that area, we had the ability to target kind of larger employers, the ones who should have known better, who have in house counsel that can be advising them on these things, and the ones who maybe are, you know, a mom and pop store that don't necessarily have the same resources.
