Is Pay For Parity Or Performance?

California joined the ranks of statutory pay transparency when Governor Newsom signed a bill into law that requires California employers (of 15 or more) to publicize the pay scale for any advertised positions. The new law, which takes effect on January 1, 2023, poses a host of compliance challenges for employers. Among those challenges is the interpretation and application of the term "pay scale," which the law defines in a self-referencing way as the salary or hourly wage range that the employer reasonably expects to pay for the position. But there are other less obvious consequences that accompany this new law and those consequences begin with existing employees who will voraciously consume the now-public information about the compensation their employers believe worthy of the jobs they already hold. An interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal poisted that success at work (the study at issue in the piece focused on NHL players) could actually be hampered by an