Which states require pay in job ads?

At least 13 states and Washington, D.C. now make most employers put a pay range in their job ads, after Virginia's law took effect on July 1, 2026 and Connecticut's on October 1, 2026. That matters when you search, because on November 10, 2026, 65% of the job ads we track in those places had a pay range filled in, compared with 35% of ads in states with no such law.

Each state wrote its own rule, so the details differ. Some cover every employer and some only bigger ones. Many ask for a "good faith" range, which means the pay the employer really expects to offer, not a made-up span from very low to very high. California's Labor Commissioner, for example, describes the required pay scale as a good faith estimate of what the employer expects to pay at hire, and says a link or QR code to the range does not count, so the number must be in the ad itself.

TablePay range laws for job ads, as written on each state's own site
State Which employers Rule in effect since
Colorado Not listed on the bill page January 1, 2021
Washington 15 or more employees January 1, 2023
New York 4 or more employees September 17, 2023
California 15 or more employees Not listed on the state's FAQ page
Hawaii 50 or more employees January 1, 2024
Washington, D.C. No size limit in the code section Law added March 5, 2024
Maryland Not listed on the state's FAQ page October 1, 2024
Illinois 15 or more employees January 1, 2025
Minnesota 30 or more employees in Minnesota Law passed in 2024
New Jersey 10 or more employees June 1, 2025
Vermont 5 or more employees July 1, 2025
Massachusetts 25 or more employees in the state October 29, 2025
Virginia No size limit in the law July 1, 2026
Connecticut 1 or more employees October 1, 2026
Source: state labor department pages, statutes and bill pages listed under Sources, read on November 10, 2026.

This list only has laws I could confirm on a state website. Some private trackers also list Maine, but I could not confirm a Maine law on the state's own pages, so it is not in the table. A few cities, such as Cleveland, have their own rules too.

What is new in 2026?

Two states joined this year. Virginia's law, signed as chapters 996 and 1063 of 2026, says every employer must show the pay or pay range in each public and internal posting, and the range has to be set in good faith, according to the Code of Virginia's 2026 updates. There is no small-business cutoff in that section. The state's attorney general can fine an employer up to $1,000 for a first violation and up to $5,000 after that.

Connecticut already made employers share a pay range when an applicant asked for one. Since October 1, 2026, Public Act 26-12 makes employers put the wage or wage range, plus a general description of benefits such as health insurance, retirement and paid leave, in public and internal job ads, according to the state's Office of Legislative Research. The act also covers jobs done outside Connecticut when the worker reports to a supervisor or office in the state.

How often do job ads actually show pay?

We looked at the 14,113 US job ads posted by 417 companies that use the Ashby and Lever hiring systems, out of 744 companies with US openings that Hiring Tempo tracked on November 10, 2026. Those two systems have a separate pay field that employers fill in, and we count an ad as showing pay when that field has a range. Of the 14,113 ads, 8,611 did, which is 61%.

The split by state follows the laws, with some surprises.

TableShare of US job ads with a pay range in the pay field, by state
State Pay law? Job ads With a pay range Share
Washington Yes 482 371 77%
New Jersey Yes 81 60 74%
California Yes 6,278 4,230 67%
Illinois Yes 132 88 67%
New York Yes 2,137 1,415 66%
Georgia No 104 69 66%
Washington, D.C. Yes 234 142 61%
Colorado Yes 240 119 50%
Texas No 611 246 40%
Massachusetts Yes 662 245 37%
Florida No 113 25 22%
Pennsylvania No 112 11 10%
Source: Hiring Tempo, November 10, 2026. US ads from companies on Ashby and Lever that name one state. Ads that name several states are left out.

Across all ads in states with a law, 6,726 of 10,376 had a range, or 65%. In states without one, 539 of 1,529 did, or 35%. Remote ads that do not name a state came in at 61%, close to the law states, which makes sense because California's Labor Commissioner says its rule covers any job that may be filled in California.

Georgia stands out at 66% with no law, because its count is small and a few companies there fill in the pay field anyway, like the aircraft maker Hermeus on all 20 of its Georgia ads. In Texas, Shield AI put a range on 131 of its 135 ads, so one company's habit can move a whole state's number.

Why Massachusetts and Colorado look low

Massachusetts has had its law since October 2025, but only 37% of its ads in our count have a range in the pay field, even though the state can fine an employer up to $1,000 for a third violation, according to its General Laws. Colorado, which has had a law the longest, is at 50%. I don't think that means employers there are skipping the rule, because the gap comes from a handful of big employers that write the range into the job description instead of the pay field.

I checked three of them. Veeva's Boston sales ads list base pay starting at $80,000 or $90,000 in the description text. Palantir's New York engineering ads show a range starting at $135,000 the same way, and Crusoe's San Francisco ads do too. Our count only reads the pay field, so it misses all of those. The real share of ads with pay is higher than the tables show, in every state.

That gives you a simple rule when an ad has no pay at the top of the page. Scroll to the bottom before you give up, because many employers put the range near the benefits section.

What the ranges look like

Ranges in law states run higher, mostly because of which jobs are there. The typical ad in a law state that lists yearly pay has a midpoint of $210,000, from 6,411 ads, compared with $165,000 from 470 ads in states without a law. Many of the law-state ads are engineering jobs in San Francisco and New York, so this is not a sign that the laws raised pay.

Most ranges are not very wide. In the middle ad, the top of the range is 36% above the bottom, so a job that starts at $150,000 tops out around $203,000. We found 556 ads where the top of the range was at least double the bottom, and 253 that listed a single number.

OpenAI is the biggest single source of ranges in our data, with all 555 of its California ads showing pay. For more on what entry-level jobs pay, see how many entry-level tech jobs are open right now, and for remote pay, see which companies are hiring remote workers.

What this data can't tell you

We count ads, not hires, and a range in an ad is what the employer says it expects to pay, not what anyone was paid. Base pay only, so stock and bonuses are left out. We read one field from two hiring systems, so ads on Greenhouse, Workday and other systems, where we don't read a pay field, are not in these numbers at all.

Sources