Sponsors (3)
The bill increases pay transparency and legal protections for workers (helping women and racial/ethnic minorities) at the cost of added compliance, administrative burden, and litigation risk for employers—especially small businesses.
Job applicants and employees — especially middle-class families, women, and racial/ethnic minorities — will get clearer pay information because employers must post or disclose wage ranges for openings and upon request.
Workers who discuss or request pay information (including middle-class families, women, and racial/ethnic minorities) are protected from employer retaliation and can sue for relief.
Affected employees can recover statutory damages ($1,000–$10,000) or actual damages plus attorneys’ fees, increasing enforcement incentives and the likelihood employers comply with pay-disclosure rules.
Small businesses will face new compliance costs and potential fines for violations (first violation $5,000, up to $10,000), which could strain their finances.
Employers may face increased litigation exposure from individual and collective suits, raising legal costs that could be passed to workers through reduced hiring or wages.
Employers and state governments may need to revise hiring and internal pay policies, creating administrative burdens and potential pay-compression effects that narrow pay differentials.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires employers to post and disclose wages or wage ranges to applicants and employees, bans retaliation for disclosure, and creates civil penalties and private remedies.
Introduced March 10, 2025 by Eleanor Holmes Norton · Last progress March 10, 2025
Requires employers to post and disclose the wage or wage range for any job posting and to provide wage or wage-range information to applicants and employees (on hire, at least annually, and on request). It bans employer retaliation for exercising those disclosure rights and creates new civil penalties and private legal remedies for violations, including statutory or actual damages, attorneys’ fees, injunctions, and per-violation fines. Applies by adding a new disclosure requirement to the Fair Labor Standards Act and by expanding enforcement under the FLSA to include specified civil penalties and collective/private suits for affected applicants and employees.