Pay Range(r)s: A (Pocket) Field Guide To Pay Transparency

California has now joined New York City and Colorado in requiring employers (for Golden State employers, of 15 or more) to publish "pay scales" in job postings. As with many things California, however, the new law (which becomes effective on January 1, 2023) regulates, but doesn't guide. Pay transparency may be a worthy goal to effectuate parity, but employers face more questions than the new mandate answers. Because human resource professionals are often the first to venture out into new territory (often unaided by maps and navigation equipment) we thought a field guide for pay "rangers" was in order.

Calculate the pay range. A pay scale should reflect the compensation range an employer "reasonably expects" to pay. What is reasonable under these circumstances? As always, what is reasonable in any given case depends on the facts, but a range should be grounded in some concrete data. That data might include things like, (1) the salary or hourly rate being paid to