For decades, discussing your salary was a workplace taboo—a “secret” that often favored employers and hid systemic wage gaps. But as of December 2025, the landscape of the American workplace has shifted permanently. A wave of new pay transparency laws 2025 has swept across the USA, turning the “right to know” into a legal requirement.

If you suspect you are being underpaid compared to your peers, you no longer have to guess. New legislation in several key states now mandates that employers pull back the curtain on compensation.

The 2025 Transparency Wave: Which States Are In?

This year has been the most significant yet for the “Equal Pay for Equal Work” movement. Several states officially launched or expanded their transparency requirements in 2025:

  • Illinois & Minnesota (Jan 1, 2025): Both states started the year by requiring employers (with 15+ and 30+ employees respectively) to include “good faith” salary ranges and benefit descriptions in all job postings.

  • New Jersey (June 1, 2025): New Jersey’s law went live, uniquely requiring that salary ranges in postings cannot have a spread wider than 60% of the minimum (e.g., a range of $100k–$160k is allowed, but $100k–$300k is a red flag).

  • Vermont (July 1, 2025): Vermont joined the ranks, applying its law to any employer with five or more employees, covering both physical and remote roles.

  • Massachusetts (Oct 29, 2025): The most recent addition, Massachusetts now requires covered employers to disclose pay ranges not just in ads, but to current employees upon request for their own positions.

These states join California, New York, Colorado, and Washington in a growing coalition that covers nearly a third of the U.S. workforce.

Tutorial: How to Use Public Data to Build a Wage Discrimination Case

If you feel your paycheck doesn’t reflect your value—or the market rate—follow these four steps to use the new transparency data to your advantage.

Step 1: Audit Your Company’s External Job Postings

Check your company’s LinkedIn or “Careers” page for your specific job title. Under the laws in the states mentioned above, they must list a salary range for new openings. If the advertised range for a “new hire” in your role starts significantly higher than your current salary, you have documented proof of a disparity.

Step 2: Exercise Your “Right to Request”

In states like Massachusetts and Maryland, current employees have a legal right to request the pay range for their own position. You don’t need to wait for a job posting.

  • Action: Send a formal (written) request to HR: “Under [State] Pay Transparency Law, I am requesting the current salary range for my position [Title].”

Step 3: Define “Comparable Work”

Wage discrimination isn’t just about people with your exact title. Under the Equal Pay for Equal Work USA standards, compare yourself to anyone performing “comparable work”—work requiring substantially similar skill, effort, and responsibility. Use local job postings from competitors to see if your employer is significantly under-marketing your role’s value.

Step 4: Watch for “Bad Faith” Ranges

If an employer lists a range like “$50,000 – $250,000,” they may be violating the “good faith estimate” requirement found in almost all 2025 statutes. Extreme ranges are often an attempt to circumvent the law and can be used as evidence that the employer is not being transparent about their actual pay scales.

Conclusion

Pay transparency is no longer a corporate “perk”—it is the law in a growing number of states. These 2025 updates provide you with the tools to identify whether you are a victim of gender, race, or age-based wage gaps. However, identifying a discrepancy is only the first step; holding an employer accountable for a wage discrimination violation often requires navigating complex state and federal statutes like Title VII. If you have discovered that you are being paid less than your peers for comparable work and your employer has failed to remedy the gap, you may have a legal claim for damages. To ensure your rights are protected and to pursue an equal pay for equal work claim, contact Lforlaw today to connect with expert wage discrimination lawyers specializing in the latest 2025 transparency regulations.

Sources

  • Massachusetts General Laws: An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency (Effective Oct 29, 2025).

  • New Jersey Department of Labor: New Jersey Pay and Benefit Transparency Act (Effective June 1, 2025).

  • Maryland Department of Labor: Equal Pay for Equal Work – Wage Range Transparency FAQ (Updated 2025).

  • Vermont Attorney General’s Office: Guidance on Act 155 – Disclosure of Compensation (Effective July 1, 2025).

  • Illinois General Assembly: HB 3129 – Amendment to the Equal Pay Act of 2003 (Effective Jan 1, 2025).

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