Legislators in California have passed a bill strengthening the state’s pay transparency requirements. Elements contained in the bill, SB 1162, include a requirement for many employers to include salary ranges in job postings, disclose salary scales to employees for their current positions, and to file pay data reports.

The new bill requires an employer with 15 or more employees to include a pay scale in any job posting, and to maintain records of their employees' job titles and wage rate histories. The bill also requires that employers of 15 or more employees using a third party to advertise job postings to provide the pay scale to the third party for publication.

Upon request, an employer must provide an employee with the pay scale for the position in which the employee is currently employed. The bill also requires employers within the state of more than 100 employees to file an annual ‘pay data report’ each May. The reports must include the “median and mean hourly rate for each combination of race, ethnicity, and sex within each job category.”

The bill now rests with Governor Gavin Newsom, who has until September 30th to sign or veto the bill. The Los Angeles Times reports that Newsom hasn’t made his position on the bill public, and did not respond to the publication’s request for comment.

California’s passing of the state-wide bill comes months after New York State passed similar legislation to require employers to disclose salary ranges in job postings. Like its California counterpart, the New York bill is currently awaiting signature by the state’s governor.

Meanwhile, New York City’s new salary transparency laws are set to come into force in November, which will see businesses of four or more employees in the city include salary ranges in job advertisements.

Measures designed to improve salary transparency already exist on a state-wide level in Colorado, Nevada, Connecticut, California, Washington, and Maryland. Regardless of the future of the new California legislation, the state already requires employers to provide a pay scale upon request to applicants.

The new law may have a significant impact on the discourse surrounding salaries and compensation in architecture. At present, there are over 350 job adverts on Archinect Jobs for positions in California. 

You can help us in our continued effort to provide salary insights into architectural practice across the USA by anonymously responding to the Architecture Salary Poll here.