Colorado pay equity law is 1 year old. Here's how many complaints it's produced. - Denver Business Journal - Denver Business Journal
Colorado’s controversial new pay-equity law generated about 250 complaints in its first year on the books, but the state fined only one repeat-offender employer as it tried to emphasize education over enforcement.
The law, passed in 2019, requires employers to list salary ranges in all job postings and to post openings so that they can be seen and used by everyone within a company. It also bans employers from asking workers what they made at their previous job. Its sponsors, Democratic Sens. Jessie Danielson and Brittany Pettersen, aimed to use it to help close the wage gap between male and female employees by allowing women to apply for more promotions and to enter new jobs with a clean salary slate if they’ve been paid less at their former workplaces.
Colorado grabbed national attention this summer when some employers seeking remote workers began advertising jobs with the caveat that they were not open to Colorado workers — a way of avoiding posting salary ranges. But Scott Moss, director of labor standards and statistics in the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, said the pushback against the law was not as widespread or hardened as some expected it to be.
His division, which set the rules for the law, received about 250 complaints regarding non-compliance with one of three aspects of the law — a lack of salary range in a job posting, a lack of promotion postings around a workplace or the designation that Coloradans need not apply.
CDLE sent 128 compliance-assistance letters, largely to employers who did not post salary ranges or barred Colorado applicants, but 84% of recipients fixed the problem without the need to launch an investigation. That indicates that many, particularly out-of-state companies looking to hire remotely or hire in Colorado, just weren’t aware of the law, Moss said. And some of the targets who haven’t cured the problem yet are large corporations who have asked for time to change their standard job-posting template to conform to the new law.
He noted that CDLE had no jurisdiction over some of the companies telling Colorado applicants to stay away. If a company has no physical presence in this state — an office or a worker — or if they were hiring for a job specifically located in another state, they are not subject to the requirements, Moss said.
In general, CDLE tried not to penalize any first-time offenders in the first year of the law, as it stressed education and getting compliance over penalties, Moss said. Just one employer was assessed a fine, because it was notified about a violation and then committed a second violation before fixing the first, he said.
“We’ve taken that approach because this is a new law,” Moss said, adding that he expects there to be more penalties in the second year. “And in the first year, we really worked to understand that employers acting in good faith just don’t know about the new requirements.”
Colorado Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Loren Furman said that employers haven’t reported significant legal troubles with the new law. Still, she and other economic-development leaders remain somewhat worried that at least a few companies that have the opportunity to expand into Colorado or at least hire remote workers in the state will pass on the chance because of the requirements.
The bigger issue, Furman said, is that employers see a high number of job applicants, including those with little experience or lesser qualifications, demanding pay at the high end of the posted scale because they know that is a possibility. And that has led to consternation and tension in the hiring and retention process, she said.
“I think that is an awkward conversation that employers have had to have with some employees,” Furman said. “Maybe some of these salaries needed to be improved. But not every applicant needs to be at the highest point on that range.”
Sen. Janet Buckner, an Aurora Democrat who cosponsored the law while she was in the House, said the main purpose of the law was and remains closing the pay gap between men and women doing similar work. She said that testimony on the bill showed that too many women weren't being paid appropriately, and she continues to believe that the law will take a big step to fixing that.
"There's a gender pay gap. It does exist," Buckner said. "And it's really sad that it took legislation to bring this to the attention of the public."
2021 Denver-Area Business Advocacy Groups
Ranked by Revenue from most recent fiscal year
| Rank | Company name | Revenue from most recent fiscal year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau Inc. dba Visit Denver | $40.99 million |
| 2 | Colorado Hospital Association | $9.08 million |
| 3 | Denver Area Better Business Bureau Inc. | $5.69 million |
| View This List | ||
source: https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2022/01/06/colorado-pay-equity-complaints-salary-range.html
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