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Connecticut Law Requires Employers to Disclose Salary Ranges to Applicants

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By Liz Swedock

Connecticut Law Requires Employers to Disclose Salary Ranges to Applicants: Earlier this month Governor Lamont signed An Act Concerning the Disclosure of Salary Ranges, which goes into effect October 1, 2021.   This new bill has several excellent protections for employees!

Under this new law, employers (defined as anyone with at least one employee “ so virtually all employers) must:

  • Provide job applicants with the wage range being offered for a position, either at the applicant’s request or when an offer of employment is made, and
  • Provide current employees with the wage range for their positions when the employee is (1) hired, (2) has their position changed, or (3) when the employee first requests the wage range.

If an employer violates the bill, an employee can bring legal action against them for damages.  The bill allows for compensatory damages (repayment for harm done to you), punitive damages (extra money damages against the employer for punishment, paid to you), and attorney’s fees and costs.

In addition, the new law strengthens the existing protections around gender-based discrimination in employee compensation.  The current (old) law already made it illegal for employers to discriminate by paying people of different genders different amounts.  However, the old law limited this to wages for equal employees.  However, equal is obviously difficult to define creating a luxurious loophole for employers trying to skirt the rules (or evade damages in a lawsuit).   Are any two employees “or any two people“ ever exactly equal?   Don’t we all have slightly different skill sets experience levels or educational backgrounds?  Of course, we do.

The new bill changes this language to prevent wage discrimination for comparable employees, which is defined as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility. This is a much more flexible standard which, in legal terms, translates to making it harder for employers to evade the rules if they are not paying opposite genders equally.

Connecticut Law Requires Employers to Disclose Salary Ranges to Applicants: If you suspect that your employer is not paying different genders equally, you may have a claim and should call us to discuss. Contact our employment attorneys at  Carey & Associates PC at 203-255-4150.

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