EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 1ST, 2024 — Maryland Wage Transparency Client Alert

Employers with Maryland employees or those looking to hire employees working in Maryland should be aware of a new law that will go into effect on October 1, 2024: the Wage Range Transparency Act. This law will require employers to comply with more expansive obligations when listing job postings and when providing pay statements. We wanted to provide Maryland employers with a few of the high points in Q&A format below.

Which Employers Are Covered by the New Law?

This law applies to all employers posting for any position where work will be physically performed, at least in part, in Maryland.

What Types of Job Postings Does the Law Cover?

The law applies to all solicitations, internal and external, such as:

• newspaper advertisements and printed flyers that are distributed or displayed;
• social media posts;
• emails sent to more than one applicant, or emails sent through an electronic mailing list; or
• advertisements published through any other medium.

This includes postings done by or on behalf of the employer, including job recruiters or job listing websites such as Indeed, LinkedIn, Monster, etc. However, an employer will not be held responsible for job postings that are reposted, aggregated, or “scraped” by a third-party website without the employer’s consent.

What are the Posting Requirements?

Employers must include the following in any internal or external job posting:

• the wage range;
• a general description of benefits; and
• any other applicable compensation.

The general description of benefits may include the following: any employer provided insurance, paid or unpaid leave, retirement or savings funds, and/or employer-provided meals or lodging. Employers should also include any other earnings or monetary compensation that an employee may receive as payment in return for work performed.

Employers must retain records of compliance for each position for at least three (3) years after the position is filled, or, if the position is not filled, the initial posting of the position.

What are the Pay Statement Requirements?

Under current law, Maryland employers are required to provide notice to employees at the time of hire of certain information related to rate of pay, paydays, and leave benefits, and must provide employees with a statement of the employee’s gross earnings and deductions for each pay period. The new law builds upon both of these requirements:

• Notice: under the new law, the notice of rates of pay, paydays, and leave benefits must be in writing.
• Pay Statements: the new law requires the following information to be provided on each pay statement:
  • employer’s name (as registered with the State), address, and telephone number;
  • date of payment;
  • beginning and ending dates of the pay period;
  • for non-exempt employees, the number of hours worked in the pay period;
  • all rates of pay;
  • additional bases and amounts of pay, including bonuses, sales commissions, or anything else;
  • for piece-rate employees, the applicable piece rates of pay and number of pieces completed at each rate;
  • gross and net pay earned during the pay period; and
  • amount and description of each deduction made from pay.

How do Employers Ensure Compliance?

The Maryland Department of Labor (MDOL) has provided a form that employers can utilize when creating job postings that will help them be in compliance with the required posting obligations. However, use of this form is entirely optional, and MDOL also has provided other narrative examples of postings which are compliant under the law. Additional FAQs about the job posting requirements can be found here.

MDOL has also created an optional pay stub template that employers may use to ensure compliance with the law’s pay statement requirements. Additional FAQs about the pay statement requirements can be found here.

Penalties for non-compliance are up to $600 per impacted employee/applicant for job-posting violations, and up to $500 per employee for pay statement violations.

If you have any additional questions or would like more information on the Maryland Wage Range Transparency Act, please reach out to Doug Desmarais (ddesmarais@smithdowney.com) or Kerstin Miller (kmiller@smithdowney.com).