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Quick Hits
- Washington Governor Ferguson signed legislation amending the pay transparency requirements of the EPOA.
- The amended EPOA provides employers a cure period of five business days after receiving notice of a defective posting to change a posting to comply with the pay transparency requirements.
- The new law will also allow employers to advertise a single fixed pay amount in job postings instead of a pay range, in certain circumstances.
- The law also limits remedies for affected job applicants, allowing them to seek either administrative remedies or statutory damages in a private civil action.
Washington Substitute Senate Bill (SSB) 5408 amends the pay and benefit information in job positions required by the EPOA, provisions that have led to hundreds of class action lawsuits since summer 2023. The law will take effect on July 27, 2025.
The signing comes after Washington lawmakers passed SSB 5408 with amendments in April 2025, updating the pay transparency provisions in Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 49.58.110.
Specifically, RCW 49.58.110 requires employers with fifteen or more employees to affirmatively disclose in each job posting the salary range or wage scale offered for the position, in addition to a general description of all benefits and other compensation offered for the position.
SSB 5408 updates the law to allow Washington employers to list a fixed pay amount instead of a wage range if only one amount is offered, including for internal transfers. In addition, the law will exempt job postings that are “digitally replicated and published without an employer’s consent” from the pay equity requirements.
The law will also allow employers five business days to correct noncompliant job postings after receiving a written notice and avoid penalties from the effective date of July 27, 2025, through July 27, 2027.
SSB 5408 further defines and clarifies two separate remedies. Job applicants affected by an allegedly noncompliant job posting will be able to either seek administrative remedies, including civil penalties up to $1,000 and statutory damages between $100 and $5,000 per violation, or pursue a private civil action to recover “statutory damages of no less than $100 and no more than $5,000 per violation, plus reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.” The remedies are exclusive of each other.
Ogletree Deakins’ Pay Equity Practice Group and Seattle office will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Pay Equity and Washington blogs as additional information becomes available.
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