Colorado recently amended its Equal Pay for Equal Work Act to modify employers’ pay transparency obligations for job postings and internal promotional opportunities. This newly amended law increases the statute of limitations for wage discrimination claims from three years to six years and creates new mandates for Colorado’s Department of Labor and Employment with respect to the investigation, mediation, and enforcement of wage discrimination claims. This amendment comprehensively covers many necessary changes to improve the law’s efficacy and ensure that wage disparities are kept in check.
Colorado’s Role in Propelling Pay Transparency Regulations
Notably, Colorado was the first jurisdiction to pass a law requiring employers to provide pay range or rate information in job postings, starting a trend which many other jurisdictions have since followed. This means job seekers in Colorado and elsewhere have a better idea of potential earnings, and corporations willing to add transparency to their hiring process are able to attract more qualified candidates. These transparency requirements also act as a check against gender and racial discrimination, allowing all employees to have a better sense of what they are worth.
Changes to Job Promotion Requirements
The original Equal Pay Act required that an employer make reasonable efforts to announce, post, or otherwise make known all opportunities for promotion to all current employees on the same calendar day and prior to making a promotion decision. However, the amendment eliminates some of these requirements. Specifically, under the amended law, employers must make reasonable efforts to announce, post, or otherwise make known each “job opportunity” to employees. This new change aims to make promotion opportunities more competitive and to give all employees a fair shot at landing new roles.
The new law still allows for exceptions regarding temporary, interim, or acting job opportunities that require immediate hiring. Employers are still expected to give sufficient notice for new job openings, but the law acknowledges that unique job positions may demand prompt action.
More Information to Be Disclosed in Job Opportunity Notifications
The amended law also includes new requirements for disclosure. Regarding the information that employers must provide in a job opportunity notification (including all external job postings), the amended law now requires employers to disclose the anticipated closing date of the application window. This helps job seekers submit their applications on time and provides all parties with a timeline to work with.
The law also requires employers to provide transparency regarding the candidate selected for a job opportunity to those employees with whom the selected candidate will regularly work in the new role. This not only ensures equality and fairness within a company but also creates a more welcoming environment for new employees to work in.
The amended law adds a requirement that for positions with “career progression,” an employer must disclose and make available to all eligible employees the requirements for career advancement. Employers must now provide additional information about career advancement and opportunities for employees. Employers with career progression-style positions will need to adapt their internal hiring practices to provide additional information to internal candidates to assess their eligibility and interest in promotion, along with the new disclosure requirements.
In conclusion, the new amendments to Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act make a strong statement for pay equity and equality in the workplace. Employers with employees in Colorado should review their job posting and internal promotion notification practices and take steps to modify those practices before the January 1, 2024 effective date. Over the past few years, states and even entire countries, such as the United Kingdom, have introduced pay transparency regulations, erasing the long-standing custom of hiding pay from coworkers. As a result, employers are becoming more transparent about pay by posting salary ranges for job openings. With these new changes, the hope is that employees and job seekers will have all the information they need to make the inferences and decisions necessary for their career growth.