D.C. to Require Pay Range in Job Ads, Ban Salary History Queries

Businesses advertising job openings in Washington, D.C., will have to include a pay range and will be barred from asking job applicants their prior salary history, under legislation Mayor Muriel Bowser signed into law Friday.

The measure (B25-0194) largely mirrors the job posting pay transparency laws that have spread to California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, and Washington state. Similar bills came close to passing in the Maine and Massachusetts legislatures in 2023.

Supporters of the transparency mandates say they’re aimed at reducing gender and race pay gaps by helping job applicants negotiate fair pay. Federal labor statistics indicate D.C. has one of the worst wage gaps in the country for workers of color, with the average Black woman who works full time making 52 cents for every dollar that the average White man makes.

The D.C. legislation is set to take effect June 30, 2024, if it clears its 30-day congressional review without Congress voting to overrule it. The law will apply to any employer with at least one employee in the district, except for the federal and D.C. governments.

The new requirements expand on D.C.’s existing wage transparency law, which bans employers from punishing employees for discussing wages with coworkers or managers.

Unlike the pay transparency laws in Colorado and Washington state, the new D.C. law won’t require that job postings include a description of employee benefits, but employers will be required to inform job applicants of the existence of health-care benefits before the first job interview.