Hiring & Onboarding
Must a California job posting show the pay scale?
By the WeERM Editorial Team
Yes, if you have 15 or more employees. SB 1162, effective 1 January 2023, requires the pay scale to appear in any job posting — including one placed through a third party. The duty to give the scale on request applies regardless of size.
Pay transparency arrived in California in two layers, and employers routinely satisfy one and miss the other. The older duty, under Labor Code § 432.3, is to provide the pay scale to an applicant on reasonable request. SB 1162 added the newer one: for employers at or above fifteen employees, the scale has to be in the posting itself.
The threshold counts employees, not employees in California, and the obligation attaches to the posting rather than the hire. A business that advertises a role it may not fill still has to state a scale.
Third-party postings are covered explicitly. An employer must provide the pay scale to any third party engaged to announce, post or publish the role, and that third party must include it. Routing a job through an agency does not move the duty; it adds a person who can fail to discharge it.
What has to be published is the salary or hourly wage range the employer reasonably expects to pay for the position. A range so wide it communicates nothing is the predictable failure mode, and it is also the one most visible to a regulator, because it is published.
Sources
Reviewed 2026-08-10 by the WeERM team. Informational only, not legal advice. California rules change; confirm against the current source before acting.