ES.E.1 Equal Pay and Opportunities Act- Draft Administrative Policy

Is a union dispatch that is a provision of a collective bargaining agreement considered exempt from the requirements of this rule and policy?

Do we need to include supplemental insurance, legal assistance benefits, HSA, HRA, or FSA?

What if, during job offer negotiation, we end up agreeing on a wage that is higher than the maximum posted on the job ad? Are there repercussions for this?

We have multiple levels of the job with the same job title. When we advertise, we only put job title, not level. Based on skill level, we will offer the position at one of the levels. (Assembler 1 or Assembler 2) Do we need to disclose the salary range for all of the levels on the job posting?

This is of grave concern for myself, and many of my small business friends for many reasons. Having to disclose salary or ranges is not appropriate in a free enterprise system and should not be regulated by the State. First and foremost, it shows your competitors what you are paying and is most times something more safe guarded by the company. If the intent by that is to raise the bar on salaries, companies will then also have to raise their prices to cover those, which then negates the higher wages and causes more inflation. This is a vicious cycle. In addition, most times, when an intention is brought forth, it most always has adverse unintended consequences.
Second, when you interview someone, you are trying to assess where their skills sets are, and how they will add value to your company. Once that has occurred, you then make an offer to the candidate, and they either accept or decline. If a company is not able to attract and maintain good employees then the market will sort that out and the company has choices to make on what they need to do.
Third, by having to disclose a range, you may be missing out on employees that you may have offered a higher wage too once you learned about their skills but because they didn't like the range, they did not apply. in the alternative, if you post a higher wage, you then have a person that thought their skills were at level 10, when they really were at level 4, and then is insulted if offered a range that more matches their skill level.
While there are many other reasons, overall, this is not a good policy. Small and Medium Businesses are just that and the market will sort out what employers should and should not be offering to hire and maintain talent. Please do not pass this policy or make it a policy. Small and Medium sized business are struggling enough with this labor market and the overall burdens of legislation. Washington was label as a great place to live and do business, that is because of the many natural resources, space, and seasons, but we are not business friendly from a governmental standpoint.

Are employees allowed to request compensation rates for other employees in the company from management? Language describes that they cannot be prohibited from these discussions amongst themselves, but not specific to employee/management interactions on this subject.

What about exempt professional positions that are paid on a formula or profit-sharing basis? It is not possible to estimate a compensation range for these professionals, as this is dependent upon multiple, varying factors. There should be an exemption for, or at least further guidance as to, exempt employees who are paid other than a definitive salary or hourly rate.

Please provide clarification for when a position is never posted but transitioned to someone internally.

Please provide L&I's expectations if a wage is given outside of a posted range. For example, let's say we are hiring for an Electrical Engineer and the posted salary is $100,000 - $130,000, and it's decided to hire a candidate who doesn't meet all of the qualifications or have the experience to even be in the wage range or position, so a lower position and/or a lower salary is given to the new hire. Or what would happen if you decide to offer a position that was not posted, i.e., you decide to create a new position based on the person's experience, so the job was never posted, and no salary range was established? Or what if you hire someone at a rate over the posted salary range?

I would like to request clearer guidance around positions that receive tips/service charge cash outs regularly. Is the phrase "plus tips" acceptable or would that be considered an open ended phrase?

In higher education it is common for job openings for part-time faculty positions (so-called "adjunct" positions) to not be publicly advertised in any form. Instead, department chairs typically email colleagues to spread the word about an opening and job applicants blindly email department chairs asking if they have any work. I assume the definition of posting as "any solicitation" would cover such an email, but it might be helpful to include a specific mention of situations when job openings are never publicly advertised but still involve external hires.

I serve as Chief People Officer at a Seattle-based company employing more than 15 employees. I support the requirements of ES.E.1 Equal Pay and Opportunities Act, namely the requirements to include a salary range and benefits on job postings. Indeed, our company adopted that practice over two years ago as a way to aid recruitment efforts while also supporting pay equity. It's good practice for people and for business. Thank you.