NJ pay transparency. What has to be in your job posting.

New Jersey's Pay and Benefits Transparency Act took effect June 1, 2025. Most owners heard "we have to put salary in the ad now" and stopped there. That is about a third of what the law asks for. The benefits line and the promotion notice are where small employers quietly fall out of compliance, usually without anyone telling them.

Does the New Jersey pay transparency law apply to me?

Two things have to be true. You have 10 or more employees over 20 or more calendar weeks, and you do business, employ people, or take job applications in New Jersey.

Read that employee count carefully, because it is the first place people get it wrong. The count is 10 employees in total, wherever they work. The state counts your workforce whether those people sit in Red Bank or remotely in Ohio. Four people in Monmouth County and eight spread across other states puts you over the line.

The flip side matters too. You don't have to be a New Jersey company. An out-of-state employer hiring for a job that will be performed in New Jersey follows the same posting rules.

What has to be in the posting?

Three things, in every ad for a new position, a transfer opportunity or a promotion, internal postings included.

• The pay. The hourly wage or salary for the role, or a range. "Competitive" and "commensurate with experience" don't count. A real number or a real range.
• A general description of the benefits. Health, life and disability insurance, paid time off, training, retirement, whatever you actually offer, in general terms. No plan documents or premium costs required.
• Other compensation programs the person would be eligible for, like commissions, bonuses or profit sharing.

The second and third items are the ones getting skipped. An owner updates the salary line, feels done, and posts an ad with no benefits sentence in it. That posting isn't compliant.

Can I post a very wide pay range?

The obvious workaround is a range so wide it says nothing, like $45,000 to $140,000. New Jersey's Department of Labor has said that doesn't work. Its guidance and proposed rules call for a good-faith range with a real floor and ceiling, with the spread no more than 60% of the bottom number. On a $60,000 floor, $60,000 to $96,000 works, and $60,000 to $120,000 doesn't. "$60,000 and up" doesn't either, because an open-ended range has no ceiling.

Worth knowing, the 60% figure comes from rules the state proposed in fall 2025 that have not been formally adopted. It is guidance and not yet binding regulation, but it tells you exactly how the agency that enforces this law reads it. Write the range as if the rule were final.

What is the promotion rule almost nobody knows about?

Before you make a promotion decision, you have to make reasonable efforts to let current employees in the affected department know the opportunity exists. Before, and not after.

Reasonable effort means something practical. Post it somewhere visible in the workplace where those employees actually go, and on your intranet if you have one. There are narrow carve-outs, like a promotion awarded strictly on years of experience or performance, or one made on an emergency basis. If you're promoting someone into a new title with more money and nobody else on the team knew it was open, assume the notice requirement applied.

What does it cost to get it wrong?

Civil penalties run up to $300 for a first violation and up to $600 for each one after that. Each non-compliant posting is its own violation, so six open roles posted the same bad way is six violations.

Two pieces of relief. The same job advertised on your site, Indeed and LinkedIn counts once. And there is no private right of action, so an applicant can't sue you directly over a posting. Enforcement runs through the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development, and the New Jersey Department of Labor has been proactive.

What can I do in ten minutes?

1. Add a pay line and a two-sentence benefits paragraph to your standard posting template, permanently.
2. Check your ranges, with the ceiling no more than 60% above the floor, and never open-ended.
3. Pull up every job you have live right now, on your site, Indeed, LinkedIn or a recruiter's page, and fix the ones missing benefits.
4. Pick where internal promotions get posted, like a break room board, Slack or an intranet, and use it every time.
5. If you use a staffing agency, ask in writing how they're handling this. Different rules apply to temporary help service firms.

One last thing. Publishing a range surfaces a second problem, because your current employees read it too. If the range you post for a new hire sits above what someone already doing that job makes, you will hear about it. Look at your pay bands before you post, not after.

This guide is general HR information from Luman Group, not legal advice. Employment law varies by state and changes over time. For your own situation, talk to an employment attorney, or call us and we will point you the right way.