NJ Pay Transparency Law: Postings, Promotions, and Penalties

The New Jersey pay transparency law took effect on June 1, 2025, and it requires any employer with 10 or more employees that does business in the state to include a pay range, a description of benefits, and any other compensation in every job or transfer posting.¹ Covered employers also have to make reasonable efforts to tell current employees about promotion opportunities before filling them. Violations carry civil penalties of up to $300 for a first offense and up to $600 for each one after.²

What Every Job Posting Must Include

Three items are mandatory in any posting for a new position or an internal transfer, no matter where the posting appears. That covers the employer’s own careers page, third-party job boards, printed flyers, and every other medium.

The hourly wage or salary, or a range showing the minimum and maximum the employer expects to pay.
A general description of the benefits the successful candidate would receive.
Any additional compensation programs the employee would be eligible for, such as bonuses, commissions, or equity.

The range has to reflect what the employer genuinely expects to pay at the time of posting. Open-ended figures like “$70,000 and up” or “up to $35 per hour” do not comply, because they lack either a floor or a ceiling.¹

Nothing in the statute prevents an employer from paying more than the posted maximum if the hiring process turns up a candidate who warrants it.² The posted number is a good-faith estimate, not a cap.

How Wide the Salary Range Can Be

The New Jersey Department of Labor has proposed rules that would limit the spread between the minimum and maximum of a posted range to 60 percent of the minimum. Under that formula, a job with a floor of $50,000 could go no higher than $80,000 in the posting. Ranges set through collective bargaining agreements would be exempt from the spread limit. These are proposed rules, so the final numbers may shift before adoption.

Telling Current Employees About Promotions

Before making a promotion decision, an employer has to make reasonable efforts to announce the opportunity to current employees in the affected department.² The proposed departmental rules define reasonable efforts as posting the opening both in a physical location visible to employees in that department and on the company’s internal website or intranet, if one exists.¹

Two situations do not trigger the notification duty. Promotions awarded based on years of experience or performance are exempt, and so are emergency hires made because of an unforeseen event.²

The statute uses a specific definition of “promotion”: a change in job title combined with an increase in compensation. A lateral move without more pay does not count, and neither does a raise without a title change.

Which Employers Are Covered

The law reaches any employer with 10 or more employees over at least 20 calendar weeks that does business, employs people, or takes job applications within New Jersey.¹ Private companies are covered, and so are state, county, and municipal government agencies and job placement and referral agencies.²

An out-of-state employer with no New Jersey office can still be covered. If the company hits the 10-employee threshold anywhere and accepts applications from New Jersey residents for jobs that can be performed remotely from the state, the law applies.¹ Under the proposed rules, taking applications “within New Jersey” means the solicitation occurred in the state and the work would be performed in whole, or in substantial part, within the state.

The practical result for national employers: a covered company that posts a role on a nationwide job board and accepts New Jersey applicants has to make that posting compliant, even if it is hiring across the country.¹

Penalties and How Violations Are Counted

Civil penalties run up to $300 for a first offense and up to $600 for each subsequent violation. The Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development collects them through summary proceedings.²

Counting matters. The same noncompliant listing for one job, cross-posted to several platforms, counts as a single violation. But noncompliant listings for two different positions on the same platform count as two separate violations.¹ An employer running 50 noncompliant postings for 50 different roles on one job board could face up to $15,000 in first-offense penalties in one enforcement action.

The law does not create a private right of action. Applicants and employees cannot sue directly over a noncompliant posting. All enforcement runs through the Department of Labor, which accepts reports from anyone who spots a listing that does not comply.

How the Law Interacts With the Salary History Ban

New Jersey’s salary history ban is a separate statute that predates the transparency law. Under N.J.S.A. 34:6B-20, employers cannot require applicants to disclose prior wages, salaries, or benefits, and cannot set minimum or maximum pay criteria based on what a candidate previously earned.³ It has been in effect since 2020.

A compliant job posting under the transparency law does not cure a violation of the history ban. Intake forms and interview scripts that ask about previous pay violate the older statute on their own terms.

Local Ordinances That May Apply on Top

The state law is a floor, not a ceiling, and it does not preempt stricter local ordinances. Jersey City’s Ordinance 22-026 applies to employers with their principal place of business in the city and five or more employees, and requires minimum and maximum pay information in job postings.⁴ Some small Jersey City employers therefore fall under city rules that would not reach them under the state law.

Newark also enacted a local pay transparency ordinance, though its specifics are difficult to verify in public records. Employers hiring in Newark should confirm the current terms with the city clerk’s office. Businesses operating in more than one New Jersey municipality should treat the state law as the baseline and check locally for anything stricter, such as a lower employee threshold or broader posting duties.

1
New Jersey Department of Labor. New Jersey Pay and Benefits Transparency Law
2
New Jersey Legislature. P.L. 2024, Chapter 91
3
Justia Law. New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 34-6B-20 – Unlawful Employment Practice
4
City of Jersey City. Pay Transparency Ordinance