--- title: Researchers Find Pay Transparency Laws Really Do Raise Wages (and Not Just for New Hires) description: New research finds pay transparency laws that require salary ranges on job postings increase wages for both existing workers and new hires. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 501 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Julia Glum role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/julia-glum/ bio: Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2018 articles: 453 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - Newsweek - International Business Times - CBS News - Good Morning America - WUSA9 - Pix 11 - The New York Times - Mashable - The Washington Post - CNBC - Politico social: - https://x.com/superjulia - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-glum published: '2025-11-18T17:03:09.000Z' modified: '2025-11-18T17:03:09.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - News word_count: 621 canonical: https://money.com/pay-transparency-laws-increase-wages/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo collage of a woman working on her laptop, with money and ascending arrows in the background](https://img.money.com/2025/11/News-Salary-Laws-Increase-Wages1.jpg) Salary transparency laws don’t just make the job hunt a little less frustrating. New research shows they also help raise wages across the board. In a growing number of states, new rules require employers to disclose a good-faith pay range on job listings. The changes come with the added benefit of lifting wages by up to 3.6% for workers, according to a [working paper](https://www.nber.org/papers/w34480) released Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, or NBER. “We find that pay transparency in job postings successfully leads to higher average wages,” economist David Arnold, lead author of the report, tells Money in an email. ## Expand your network and your career with the help of a Job Search Site ### Job Search Sites allow you to put your resume out there for tons of companies and potential employers to see. Click your state to begin networking today! [Get Started](https://money.com/pr/u4fa93008842?ap_referrer=%2Fpay-transparency-laws-increase-wages%2F) The researchers discovered the pay bump by analyzing job listings in Colorado aggregated from thousands of websites before and after a watershed [2021 salary transparency law](https://money.com/pay-transparency-laws-employers-share-salaries/) took effect in the state. They found that disclosed salaries represented a 3.6% increase relative to pay before the law was enacted. Actual earned salaries increased by 1.3%, according to self-reported salary data on Glassdoor and wages published by the U.S. Department of Labor. When looking at Labor Department data in other states following 2021, the researchers similarly found a 1.3% increase in wages as a result of disclosure laws. What's more, “this positive wage effect appears for both incumbent workers and new hires,” the NBER researchers wrote, “indicating that the policy impacts workers not directly targeted by the law.” This analysis confirms that salary transparency, a recent workplace trend in the U.S., can help raise wages in several ways, like by helping new hires secure competitive pay, informing current workers whether they're being underpaid and spurring wage competition among employers. "The finding that wages tend to go up is quite distinct from past work," Arnold says. "We provide suggestive evidence that pay transparency is an effective way to get firms to compete for workers, therefore bidding up wages." The NBER study also found that transparency laws increase the amount of job listings with posted salary ranges by 30 percentage points, though the researchers noted that many listings for high-paying roles still don’t include pay. A [separate study](https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2025/10/do-employers-comply-with-pay-transparency-requirements-in-job-postings/) by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found much the same. Following the enactment of salary transparency laws, pay ranges in job listings spiked in Colorado, New York City, California and Washington. However, in all cases, the NY Fed determined that compliance typically tops out at around 75%, meaning that about a quarter of [job listings](https://money.com/job-posts-include-salary-ranges-indeed/) don’t disclose pay even when they're supposed to. ## Which states have pay transparency laws? Many areas across the country are following in Colorado’s footsteps by enacting legislation that requires more [pay transparency](https://money.com/dollar-scholar-pay-transparency/) from employers. More than a dozen new pay disclosure laws have gone into effect since 2021. Many of the rules are statewide, though a handful of municipalities have made similar changes. | Location | Jurisdiction | Enactment | | --- | --- | --- | | Colorado | State | January 2021 | | Jersey City, New Jersey | Municipality | April 2022 | | Ithaca, New York | Municipality | September 2022 | | New York City | Municipality | November 2022 | | Westchester County, New York | Municipality | November 2022 | | Washington | State | January 2023 | | California | State | January 2023 | | New York | State | September 2023 | | Hawaii | State | January 2024 | | Washington, D.C. | Municipality | July 2024 | | Maryland | State | October 2024 | | Illinois | State | January 2025 | | Minnesota | State | January 2025 | | New Jersey | State | June 2025 | | Massachusetts | State | July 2025 | | Vermont | State | July 2025 | _National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Adam Hardy for Money.com_ Research shows these pay transparency laws tend to have a ripple effect. The NBER paper is among the first to indicate that salary transparency can help [raise the wages](https://money.com/pay-transparency-laws-help-get-raise/) of all workers. And the NY Fed says over two-thirds of all U.S. job postings now include salary information — a threefold increase from 2018. In addition, the NBER study found there is little to no downside of the new laws. The analysts determined there was no indication that the rules adversely affect pay differences within companies, employment levels, the number of job listings or the educational requirements for new job postings. "Pay transparency laws seem to be a relatively low-cost way to increase average wages," Arnold says. ## ZipRecruiter actively helps connect people to their next great opportunity ### Apply to jobs anytime, anywhere and get notified instantly when your application is reviewed. Click below to start searching for your new job today! [Get Started](https://money.com/pr/t317b961d1c1?ap_referrer=%2Fpay-transparency-laws-increase-wages%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/pay-transparency-laws-increase-wages/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Career Advice", "item": "https://money.com/career-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Salaries and Wages", "item": "https://money.com/salaries-and-wages/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Researchers Find Pay Transparency Laws Really Do Raise Wages (and Not Just for New Hires)" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/pay-transparency-laws-increase-wages/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/pay-transparency-laws-increase-wages/", "name": "Researchers Find Pay Transparency Laws Really Do Raise Wages (and Not Just for New Hires)", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2025-11-18T17:03:09.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/pay-transparency-laws-increase-wages/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/pay-transparency-laws-increase-wages/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2025-11-18T17:03:09.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Researchers Find Pay Transparency Laws Really Do Raise Wages (and Not Just for New Hires)", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2025/11/News-Salary-Laws-Increase-Wages1.jpg", "width": 2304, "height": 1536, "caption": "News-Salary-Laws-Increase-Wages" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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