New Jersey Pay Transparency Regulations on the Way

The law, which went into effect on June 1, 2025, has two broad requirements (and several exceptions to the same): (1) an employer must disclose pay and benefits information in postings for “new jobs and transfer opportunities,” and (2) an employer must give notice of “promotional opportunities” to current employees in the affected department.

Quick Hits

• New Jersey has proposed regulations and published guidance that employers without employees in New Jersey could be covered by the state’s pay transparency requirements, and that the requirements may apply to positions based outside of New Jersey.
• The proposed regulations also provide that the spread between minimum and maximum pay ranges in job postings cannot exceed 60 percent.
• The proposed regulations also provide some definitional clarity to non-salary compensation and benefits, new jobs versus transfers, and when employers could be liable for third-party dissemination of job postings.
• The proposed rule’s comment period ends November 14, 2025.

After a comment and review period, the regulations (which may be revised based on public comments received) will go into effect, likely in late 2025 or early 2026. The NJDOL recommends on its website that employers follow the proposed regulations until the final regulations are issued. Meanwhile, since June 1, 2025, the NJDOL has been updating its frequently asked questions (FAQs) and guidance on the pay transparency law.

Coverage

The proposed regulations would broaden the scope of covered employers beyond the statutory text by clarifying that the law applies to any person or entity with at least ten employees—regardless of whether those employees work inside or outside New Jersey—so long as the employer either does business or takes applications for employment within New Jersey. Notably, the NJDOL’s interpretation means that employers with no New Jersey–based employees may nonetheless be covered if they otherwise meet these criteria, including by doing business in the state or taking applications in New Jersey.

The proposed regulations further explain that an employer “takes applications for employment within New Jersey” only where both “the solicitation occur[s] in New Jersey and … the physical location of the prospective employment is in whole, or in substantial part, within New Jersey.”

The NJDOL’s FAQs also indicate that nationwide postings may be covered if the employer meets the threshold employee count “and the employer does business, employs persons, or takes applications within New Jersey,” even if the posting is advertised nationally or the position is located outside the state. (Emphasis in the original.) In other words, the NJDOL has taken the position in its FAQs that the law’s requirements may apply to positions that are not based in New Jersey.

Pay Range Limitations

For postings of new jobs and transfer opportunities, the proposed regulations would prohibit open-ended pay ranges and restrict the size of the advertised pay range spread.

The proposed rules provide that where an employer provides an hourly or annual salary pay range, the range must include both a minimum and a maximum; formulations such as “$17.00 per hour and up” are not permissible. In addition, the spread from the minimum to the maximum may not exceed 60 percent of the minimum. The method for calculating the spread is to subtract the minimum from the maximum, divide the result by the minimum, and multiply by 100. For example, a $20–$25 hourly range is compliant (25 percent spread), whereas a $20–$35 range is not compliant (75 percent spread). This limitation would not apply where the range is established through a collective bargaining agreement or mandated by law, rule, or local ordinance.

Benefits and Other Compensation Definitions

The proposed regulations would also clarify the scope of benefits and other compensation that must be disclosed in advertisements for new jobs and transfers. A “general description of benefits” includes, but is not limited to, “health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, paid time off (including vacation, holidays, and personal leave, and sick leave), training, and pension.” “Other compensation programs” refers to non-wage methods of compensation, including commissions, bonuses, and profit-sharing.

The proposed regulations also define a “new job” as a role “that is neither a promotion, nor a transfer opportunity,” and a “transfer” as a “change in job title and no increase in compensation.”

Promotional Opportunities

The pay transparency law requires employers to make reasonable efforts to announce, post, or otherwise make known promotional opportunities to all current employees in the affected department(s) before making a promotion decision. The proposed regulations define “reasonable efforts” to include “[c]onspicuously posting notification of the promotional opportunity” in locations within the workplace accessible to “all employees” in the relevant department(s). In addition, where the employer maintains an internet or intranet site for the “exclusive use of its employees and to which all employees have access,” the notice must be posted on that site.

The proposed regulations do not further define “affected departments” or address the strong possibility that the promotional opportunity requirement could have applicability outside of New Jersey.

Third-Party Job Sites

The proposed regulations address when employers may be responsible for noncompliant postings that appear on third-party job sites. If an employer provides the advertisement content to a third-party site for posting or provides job information for the third party to generate the posting content, the employer may be responsible for any deficiencies because the employer either controlled or voluntarily ceded control over the content. By contrast, employers would not be responsible for content scraped and aggregated by third-party websites without any direct employer involvement.

The proposed regulations would permit the use of a hyperlink on third-party job sites to satisfy the disclosure requirements where the primary advertisement lacks complete content, provided the link takes the viewer immediately and without barriers to a page where all required pay and benefits information is clearly visible. In such cases, the primary posting would still have to identify the employer’s name and location, the job title, and state that the link will lead to the required pay and benefits information.

Next Steps

The NJDOL recommends on its website that employers follow the proposed regulations until the final regulations are issued.

In addition, employers can comment on the proposed regulations before the comment period ends on November 14, 2025. Further, employers may want to consider auditing job postings for compliance with the 60 percent or less range variation requirement. Finally, employers may want to review their promotion and internal transfer practices for compliance.

Ogletree Deakins’ Morristown office and Pay Equity Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the New Jersey and Pay Equity blogs as additional information becomes available.

In addition, the Ogletree Deakins Client Portal tracks developments and provides real-time updates on Pay Transparency/Job Postings and New Jersey’s employment laws, including New Jersey’s Pay Transparency Law. Full law summaries are available for Premium-level subscribers. Snapshots and Updates are available for all registered client-users. For more information on the Client Portal or a Client Portal subscription, please reach out to clientportal@ogletree.com.

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