New York City salary transparency law for employers (2026): what every NYC job ad must show

New York City requires every employer with four or more employees, and every employment agency regardless of size, to state a good-faith minimum and maximum annual salary or hourly wage in any advertisement for a job, promotion or transfer that can or will be performed at least in part in the city, including remote roles. The rule is section 8-107(32) of the NYC Administrative Code, added by Local Law 32 of 2022 and amended by Local Law 59 of 2022, and it has been in effect since November 1, 2022. The NYC Commission on Human Rights enforces it, separately from New York State's own posting law, and as of November 2026 the text has not changed since 2022.

Where is the NYC salary transparency law?

It sits in the city's Human Rights Law, Title 8 of the Administrative Code, as subdivision 32 of section 8-107, headed "Employment; minimum and maximum salary in job listings." Two local laws built it:

• Local Law 32 of 2022 (Int. 1208-B), enacted January 15, 2022, created the rule.
• Local Law 59 of 2022 (Int. 134-A), passed April 28 and approved May 12, 2022, moved the start date to November 1, 2022, exempted temporary help firm ads for temporary work and jobs that cannot be done in the city, limited private lawsuits, and added the first-violation cure.

The core sentence makes it an unlawful discriminatory practice "for an employment agency, employer, or employee or agent thereof to advertise a job, promotion or transfer opportunity without stating the minimum and maximum annual salary or hourly wage for such position in such advertisement." The range may run from the lowest to the highest pay "the employer in good faith believes at the time of the posting it would pay."

The Commission's list of amendments to the Human Rights Law, which runs to a local law enacted in April 2026, shows no change to subdivision 32 after Local Law 59. The one serious attempt to widen it, Int. 808 of 2024, would have added benefits and other compensation to the required content and removed the cure; it was filed at the end of the session on December 31, 2025 without a vote.

Which employers and jobs are covered?

The Commission's salary transparency fact sheet and the definitions in section 8-102 set the reach:

• Employers with four or more employees. Owners count toward the four, the four do not have to work in one place or all in the city, and the workplace is covered as long as one of them works in New York City. Section 8-102 also counts independent contractors who work in furtherance of the business, and an employer's parent, spouse, domestic partner or child who works there. An employer with one or more domestic workers is covered too.
• Employment agencies of any size. The Commission says agencies "must ensure that any job listings they promote or seek to fill comply."
• Jobs that can or will be performed in the city, in whole or in part, "whether from an office, in the field, or remotely from the employee's home." A role that cannot or will not be done in the city at all is outside the law.
• Every kind of worker the Human Rights Law protects, so ads for part-time staff, interns, domestic workers and independent contractors are covered, not only full-time jobs.

Two things are excluded by the text: a job advertisement for temporary employment at a temporary help firm, as defined in Labor Law section 916(5), and positions that cannot or will not be performed at least partly in New York City.

What must a New York City job ad show?

An "advertisement," in the Commission's words, is "a written description of an available job, promotion, or transfer opportunity that is publicized to a pool of potential applicants," in any medium: internal bulletin boards, internet ads, printed job-fair flyers and newspaper ads. The law does not force anyone to advertise, and hiring without an ad is not a violation. When there is an ad, it must meet these points from the fact sheet:

1. Both a minimum and a maximum. "$15 per hour and up" and "maximum $50,000 per year" both fail.
2. Good faith at the time of posting. The range is what the employer "honestly believes" it is willing to pay the successful applicant when the ad goes up, not the full band for the job family.
3. A single figure is allowed when there is no flexibility, for example "$20 per hour."
4. Base pay only. Salary means the base annual or hourly wage or rate. Insurance, time off, retirement plans, severance, overtime, commissions, tips, bonuses, stock and meals or lodging are not part of the required range, though an ad may list them.
5. One ad, several jobs: an ad covering multiple openings can give a separate range for each.

For phrasing, see salary range job posting examples; for setting the numbers before the ad is written, see how to set salary ranges for job postings.

What happens after a complaint?

Anyone may complain to the Commission, and its Law Enforcement Bureau also opens its own investigations "based on testing, tips, and other sources of information." Under section 8-109(e) the Commission has no jurisdiction over a complaint filed more than one year after the practice. What follows:

• The first-violation cure. Under subdivision 32(d), the civil penalty is $0 for a first violation if the employer or agency proves to the Commission, within 30 days of being served with the complaint, that the ad has been fixed. The option must be offered with the complaint, proof may be sent electronically or in person, and a refusal can be reviewed if the employer asks within 15 days of written notice. An accepted cure "shall be deemed an admission of liability for all purposes."
• Penalties otherwise. Section 8-126 allows civil penalties of up to $125,000, and up to $250,000 when the violation was willful, wanton or malicious. The fact sheet adds damages to affected employees, corrected ads, new policies, training and notices of rights.
• Private lawsuits are narrow. Applicants cannot sue under section 8-502 for a missing range. A current employee can sue their own employer over that employer's ad for a job, promotion or transfer with it, within the three-year limit for civil actions.

Enforcement is real but quiet. In a January 2025 report, the City Council said the Commission had initiated over 30 salary transparency cases, including against Indeed and ZipRecruiter, without announcing how the closed ones were resolved, and that thousands of listings on Indeed and Google for Jobs appeared without ranges because of how those sites scrape postings.

How does it sit with New York State's Labor Law 194-b?

Both apply to a city role, and neither displaces the other: section 194-b(7) says the state law shall not be construed to "supersede or preempt any provisions of local law." The state rule itself is summarized in our New York pay transparency guide. The differences that change what you post:

In practice one ad can satisfy both: put the base range in the ad and add the job description when one exists. Check a commission-only city role with counsel before using the state's commission-only statement alone, because the city text has no counterpart to it.

What else changed in New York City pay law recently?

The posting rule did not change, but the Council added pay reporting. Local Law 173 of 2025, repassed over the mayor's veto on December 4, 2025, requires private employers with 200 or more employees in the city to file annual pay reports using the EEO-1 Component 2 categories the EEOC collected for 2017 and 2018. Its timeline is staged: the mayor designates an agency within a year, the agency publishes a form within a year after that, and first reports are due a year after the form. It does not change what a job ad must say. A companion law, Local Law 174 of 2025, sets up an annual pay equity study using those reports.

Salary history questions are a separate city rule, in place since 2017; see the New York salary history ban.

What should recruiters and staffing agencies do for NYC roles?

1. Treat the agency as a covered party. An agency that posts or promotes a client's role must show the range itself, whatever its headcount. "Salary competitive" in an agency ad is a violation by the agency, not only by the client.
2. Read the temp-firm exception narrowly. A temporary help firm's ads for temporary assignments on its own payroll are exempt; its ads for direct-hire searches, and its own internal staff openings, are not. The client that uses the temp firm must still put ranges in any ad of its own.
3. Get the range from the client in writing at intake, with the reason for the top and bottom, so the good-faith question can be answered later.
4. Check remote and hybrid ads. A "remote, US" ad that a Brooklyn resident can do from home is a city ad. Multistate rules for remote postings are in pay transparency for remote jobs.
5. Put the range in the ad text, not only in a structured field, so it survives when job boards copy the posting, and check the syndicated versions.
6. Keep a dated copy of every ad as published, so a cure or a defense can show what ran and when.

Agency-specific rules across states are compared in pay transparency for staffing agencies. Recruiters who also fill roles across the river should check the Jersey City ordinance, which adds benefits to the required content.

A copy-ready NYC salary range line and intake check

SALARY LINE FOR A NEW YORK CITY AD (example figures; replace them)
Salary range: $78,000 to $92,000 per year (base salary).
This is the range we in good faith believe we would pay for this
role, performed in New York City, at the time of posting.

INTAKE CHECK BEFORE THE AD RUNS
[ ] Can any part of the job be done in NYC, including from home? If yes, the city rule applies.
[ ] Employer has 4+ employees (owners and contractors count), or we are posting as an agency.
[ ] Minimum AND maximum stated; no "and up", no "up to".
[ ] Range is base pay; bonus, commission and benefits are extra lines if included at all.
[ ] Job description added if one exists (New York State rule).
[ ] Temp-firm exception used only for ads for temporary assignments on the firm's payroll.
[ ] Client's written range and its reason saved with the requisition.
[ ] Dated copy of the ad saved, including job-board versions.

New York City salary transparency rules at a glance

Outside the five boroughs, New York has two other local posting laws, covered in our Westchester County and Ithaca guides.