Gender and Pay Equity

New Pay Reporting Requirements for New York City Employers

New York City enacted two new pay data reporting laws for the purposes of collecting demographic and occupational information to use for pay equity studies of the private workforce to identify potential pay disparities. That annual reporting obligation could commence as early as 2027, and could conceivably require reporting of 2026 pay data. New York City’s pay data collection and audits follows similar efforts already in place in California, Illinois, Massachusetts and adopted by the EU Pay Transparency Directive.

At a Glance

Private employers with at least 200 employees in New York City will be required to report pay data each year to the city’s designated agency. The city’s mayor must identify the designated agency by December 4, 2026 (no agency has been identified yet).
A standardized form developed by the designated agency will request pay data broken down by job category, gender, race and ethnicity for 12 compensation bands (modeled after the EEO-1 Component 2 reports). The designated agency must develop and publish the standardized form by December 4, 2027 (no form has been developed yet).
The designated agency will annually review the submitted pay data and publish a public pay study report identifying disparities in compensation based on gender, race, and ethnicity and recommending actions for private employers to address those disparities.

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California Enacts Stronger Pay Transparency Obligations for 2026 and Beyond

Ten years after initial passage of California’s Fair Pay Act, California continues to fine tune existing pay equity and pay transparency laws. As of January 1, 2026, job postings must include the “good faith estimate” of the salary or wage range an employer expects to pay for the advertised position at the time of the candidate’s hiring. 2026 also brings longer statutes of limitation periods for employee wage discrimination claims, requires employers to separate pay data report information from employee personnel records, and mandates substantial court-imposed civil penalties for an employer’s failure to file an annual pay data report.

Narrower Pay Scale Disclosures

Current California law requires employers to provide pay scale information to applicants and current employees, upon request, and requires certain employers to include a pay scale in job postings. As previously reported, those requirements became effective on January 1, 2023.

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President Trump Revokes Executive Order 11246

President Trump revoked Executive Order 11246, among others, in a presidential action titled, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” EO 11246 and its related executive orders stood as the underlying authority requiring federal contractors to comply with race and gender affirmative-action obligations.

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New Jersey Adopts Salary and Benefit Disclosure Requirements for New Job Postings, Promotions and Transfers

New Jersey Joins a Growing List of States Requiring Greater Pay Transparency

On November 18, 2024, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Senate Bill 2310 (S2310) into law requiring employers to provide notice of promotion opportunities to affected employees and disclose certain compensation and benefit information in postings for new job openings and transfer opportunities. The law will go into effect on June 1, 2025. New Jersey joins a growing list of states requiring pay transparency, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island and Washington.

How Did We Get Here?

A version of the bill (A3937, 2022-2023) was originally introduced in the General Assembly during the legislature’s last session and received bipartisan support in the Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee. After the committee made substantial revisions, the bill ultimately died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The Senate companion bill (S3663, 2022-2023) expired in the Senate Labor Committee without a vote.

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Menopause in the Workplace: A Multi-Faceted Issue

Menopause is something that approximately 50 percent of the workforce will experience during their working lives, but it is still infrequently discussed or considered in the workplace and many of us are unaware of how menopause can affect those going through it. However, employers are seeing an increase in employees concerned about menopause and their experience with it at work. This is a multi-faceted issue that encompasses a range of potential employment law issues.

Discrimination

Most countries do not recognise menopause as a characteristic that is specifically protected by discrimination laws. But employees experiencing menopause may be protected by discrimination laws relating to age, sex, disability and gender reassignment. Generally, people experiencing menopause are women aged between 45 and 55 so any unfavourable treatment (whether direct or indirect) towards an employee experiencing menopause could amount to sex and/or age discrimination. Gender reassignment discrimination may also be relevant if the employee experiencing menopause is transgender.

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Significant Changes Ahead for Colorado Employers – Colorado’s 2023 Legislative Session Produces Extensive Employment Law Changes

The 2023 Colorado legislative session ended with the state significantly increasing employee protections through several laws that either created new protections or materially amended current protections.

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