Salary Transparency Laws & Camp

In recent years, a number of states and cities have passed "salary transparency laws," with experts predicting that more states will do the same in the near future. These laws, including the one imminently going into effect in NYC, mandate that employers include a good faith salary range for every job they advertise.

Scott Olster of LinkedIn News counts this trend among the 29 "Big Ideas that will change our world" in the coming year: "Fierce competition to recruit talented workers combined with a growing push to hold companies accountable for their diversity promises will force employers to finally open up about who is earning what, once and for all."

As a recent article from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) points out, experts argue that salary transparency laws are critical to bolstering DEI efforts by ensuring that people who have historically not received equal pay for equal work have access to the necessary information to assess their compensation.

Beyond DEI, we've all had the experience of job applicants expressing frustration at applying for work without knowing the salary range, often finding that they've wasted time pursuing a position that's far below their salary goal.

By having access to salary ranges, our applicants will be spared the fruitless effort of applying for jobs that aren't the right fit, while we camps will be spared the time and resources it takes to interview applicants who wouldn't take the job anyway.

These new laws will also give us more insight into what similarly-situated camps are paying for similar roles, which should lead to less guessing and more concrete information when budgeting for open positions.

SHRM does point out the risk of "pay compression," which occurs when longstanding employees don't make much more than new hires. As the argument goes, employers may feel pressure to offer higher wages to attract the best candidates, which may come at the expense of raising salaries for longer-serving employees.

As more salary transparency laws are passed and NYC's law is implemented, it will be interesting to follow the research about their workplace impact. In the meantime, camps should either list salary ranges in their job advertisements or check the requirements in their city and state to make sure they're in compliance with any applicable requirements.