Some lawmakers want to make New Jersey the next state to require job postings to include pay or salary ranges. However, business groups say that New Jersey might be better off if it doesn’t do this just yet.
Proposed laws in the Assembly and Senate would require employers to list the hourly wage or salary, or at least a range of pay, for each job opening, along with a list of all the benefits that come with the job.
“It cuts out a lot of wasted time,” said Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, D-Gloucester, whose bill was being talked about in the Assembly Labor Committee at the end of March.
The Senate has a bill that is the same as this one.
Moriarty said that his plan would make New Jersey the same as New York and Connecticut, which already have laws about how much people are paid. Right now, he said, people looking for work might not look in the Garden State because they don’t know how much they could make there.
Moriarty said, “It gives the person looking for work at least an idea of what the floor would be and maybe an idea of what the ceiling would be.”
Alexis Bailey, vice president of government affairs for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, says that putting pay transparency into place in other states has had mixed results. Also, there are already a lot of companies that post salary information.
Bailey told lawmakers, “I think we should maybe just wait and see what happens.”
Critics of the bill say that pay ranges might not be seen as fair by people who want to work. Businesses may just post extreme ranges to satisfy the requirement.
Hilary Chebra, manager of government affairs for the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey, said that giving candidates a wide salary range could be misleading.
Moriarty told different groups that he is willing to change his bill, which could include taking out the part that lets people sue for damages caused by breaking the law.
Bailey said that this could make employers more likely to be sued.
Under the bill, people who break the law could be fined up to $1,000 the first time, $5,000 the second time, and $10,000 the third time or more.
Moriarty’s bill affects companies with five or more workers, and it also requires employers to let every worker know about opportunities for promotion within the company.
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