Washington State
House of Representatives
Office of Program Research
BILL
ANALYSIS
Labor & Workplace Standards Committee
ESSB 5761
Brief Description: Concerning employer requirements for providing wage and salary information to applicants for employment.
Sponsors: Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce & Tribal Affairs (originally sponsored by Senators Randall, Keiser, Nguyen, Nobles, Salda?a, Stanford, Wellman and Wilson, C.).
Brief Summary of Engrossed Substitute Bill
  • Requires employers with 15 or more employees to disclose salary information and a description of expected benefits in job postings.
Hearing Date: 2/16/22
Staff: Trudes Tango (786-7384).
Background:

Employers with 15 or more employees must follow certain requirements with respect to providing wage and salary information.  An employer must provide an applicant the minimum wage or salary for the position upon request after the employer initially offers the position to the applicant.  Upon request of an employee offered a promotion or internal transfer, the employer must provide the wage scale or salary for the new position.  If no wage scale or salary range exists, the employer must provide the minimum wage or salary expectation set by the employer.  If an employer violates a wage disclosure provision, a person may pursue administrative remedies or a civil action for damages.

Summary of Bill:

The requirement for an employer to provide salary information after an initial job offer, upon request of the applicant, is removed.  Instead, an employer must disclose in each posting for each job opening the wage scale or salary range and a general description of all benefits and other compensation to be offered to the hired applicant.
 
"Posting" means any solicitation intended to recruit job applicants for a specific available position, including recruitment done directly by an employer or indirectly through a third party, and includes any postings done electronically, or with a printed hard copy, that includes qualifications for desired applicants.
 
Clarifying language is added to specify that an applicant or employee, rather than "an individual," is entitled to remedies.

Appropriation: None.
Fiscal Note: Available.
Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of the session in which the bill is passed.