How Colorado sparked a global push for salary transparency

Pay-transparency laws aim to make it easier for workers to gauge their worth in the labour market and compare job opportunities. They’re also meant to make it harder for employers to underpay people who might not fully grasp their bargaining power, one driver of the gender wage gap

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Colorado cracked open the culture of secrecy around salaries when it started forcing employers to include pay ranges in job postings. It also sparked an international trend. Since the state's rule took effect in 2021, about a dozen other states across the US have adopted similar requirements, and the European Union will follow suit later this year.

Pay-transparency laws aim to make it easier for workers to gauge their worth in the labour market and compare job opportunities. They're also meant to make it harder for employers to underpay people who might not fully grasp their bargaining power, one driver of the gender wage gap. The effectiveness of pay-transparency laws has been mixed, but interest in them remains high, with at least another dozen states considering legislation.

Colorado was an unlikely trailblazer in the drive to shine a light on pay. While an early mover in legalizing marijuana and advancing green energy, it doesn’t have the reliably progressive politics of California. Nor does it have the powerful organised-labour interests of New York. But in 2019, conditions were ripe for a salary disclosure law to pass in Denver. The state had become a magnet for a new generation of tech workers who saw little taboo in discussing salaries. The national #MeToo movement had reignited interest in women’s rights and equal pay, areas where state lawmakers tried to make inroads decades before. And with Democrats in control of the governor's mansion and both statehouse chambers for the first time in years, previously stalled bills got passed in a legislature with one of the largest shares of women lawmakers in the country.