In an effort to raise workplace transparency by combating pay disparities, a Senate Democrat has proposed mandatory pay disclosure requirements for Pennsylvania jobs.
Sen. Amanda Cappelletti, D-Delaware, on Tuesday — Equal Pay Daywhich indicates how far in a year women must work to catch up with what their white male counterparts earned the year before – announced plans reintroduce legislation requiring pay transparency requirements across the Community.
The bill, if passed by lawmakers and signed by the governor, would require employers to disclose salary ranges in job postings or the minimum wage if a range does not exist.
The practice, Cappelletti wrote in a memo seeking support, “levels the playing field” in job negotiations and allows candidates and employees to evaluate and correct “unjustified pay disparities.” She added that greater transparency allows companies to review their pay practices, creating opportunities to eliminate disparities among workers.
Cappelletti introduced this proposal earlier in the last legislative session as a companion bill a House bill by Rep. MaryLouise Isaacson, Philadelphia. Her legislation it also required employers to provide employees with written documentation that includes the salary range for a given position and positions within the employer’s enterprise that are “substantially similar in terms of the skill, effort and responsibility” necessary to perform the job each year.
“Requiring employers to disclose salary ranges in job advertisements prevents them from perpetuating pay inequality due to a legacy of paying women and people of color less for equal work and completely excluding women and people of color from certain professions and industries,” Cappelletti said .
Last year in New York adopted a similar mandate requiring employers to consider “good faith” list of salary ranges for all job postings. After its implementation, however, politics was met with a backlash after employers published broad ranges.
