State Pay Transparency Efforts Graduate to the Federal Level

▤ Summary

There is a new proposed rule coming down the pike with a lot of momentum that will bring state- and local-level pay transparency efforts to federal contractors. Fifteen years ago, President Obama signed his first piece of legislation into law as President—the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Fast-forward to today and the White House, in recognizing the Lilly Ledbetter Act anniversary, announced new, proposed pay transparency rules for federal contractor employers, elevating the state and local efforts to the national level. This makes applying the new rules much simpler for employers, unlike the maddeningly complicated federal contractor minimum wage provisions, for example. “Compensation” is defined broadly to include “any payments made to, or on behalf of, an employee or offered to an applicant as remuneration for employment, including but not limited to salary, wages, overtime pay, sift differentials, bonuses, commissions, vacation and holiday pay, allowances, insurance and other benefits, stock options and awards, profit sharing, and retirement.” The little bit of good news buried here for employers is that they will be allowed to determine the salary or wage range for an affected position one of several ways: • Using the contractor employer’s own self-set pay scale; • Calculating the range of compensation for those currently working the same or similar jobs; or • Relying on the amount budgeted for the position.

▦ Linked Companies

Biddle Consulting Group

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