Fluvanna Review Staff
Virginia employers must now tell applicants what a job pays before they apply under a new state law that took effect July 1.
The law requires employers to include a wage, salary, or good-faith pay range in every public and internal posting for a job, promotion, transfer, or other employment opportunity. Listings that once described compensation only as “competitive” must now provide a figure or range.
A second major provision of the law changes what employers may ask applicants. Employers may no longer seek a candidate’s prior salary, use that history when deciding whether to hire the person, or base a new employee’s compensation on prior pay.
Applicants can voluntarily disclose their salary history, including during negotiations after receiving an initial offer. In that situation, an employer may use the information only to support a higher offer–not to reduce the proposed pay.
Employers are also prohibited from refusing to interview, hire, employ, or promote someone, or otherwise retaliate against a current or prospective employee, because the person declined to provide salary history or asked for the position’s pay range.
The law covers both new applicants and current employees seeking promotions or transfers.
The Virginia attorney general may bring a civil action against employers that violate the law. Penalties can reach $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for later violations. Workers and applicants also may sue within one year and seek damages and other relief.
The change places Virginia among a growing number of states requiring pay transparency, giving job seekers more information before they invest time in an application or interview.
Eleven states–California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Washington–already have laws on the books regarding pay transparency. Washington, D.C., has a similar requirement. Maine’s law takes effect July 29.
Early research suggests the laws are doing more than adding fine print. A 2025 National Bureau of Economic Research study found that disclosure mandates increased salary information in job postings by 30 percentage points and raised wages between 1.3% and 3.6%, without reducing employment or the number of available jobs. Compliance remains uneven, however, and unusually broad salary ranges can often limit the information’s usefulness.
