Legislation has been introduced in California that would require companies with 100 or more employees to publicly report pay data broken down by race, ethnicity and gender for both direct employees and workers hired through staffing firms. It would also require disclosure of salary ranges on all job postings — whether posted directly or through a staffing firm — and make employers’ internal promotional opportunities available to current employees.
The bill, SB 1162, was introduced Feb. 17 by state Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara.
“Pay transparency is key to achieving pay equity,” Limón said. “SB 1162 will help identify the gender and race-based pay disparities by requiring pay transparency at every stage of the employment process, from hiring, to promotion and ongoing employment.”
Limón noted that a similar bill, SB 973, became law in 2019. The previous bill requires employers with more than 100 employees to submit pay data reports to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. However, she noted that the bill did not require the information to be publicly available and it did not require pay data on contingent workers. She says her new bill would close those gaps.
The effort is part of a move to increase pay equality.
“During our research for the Contract Worker Disparity Project, we found that contract workers (who are disproportionately Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, women, and nonbinary) are more likely to be paid less and have less access to benefits and protections, despite performing similar work to direct employees,” said Catherine Bracy, CEO and co-founder of TechEquity Collaborative.