On June 7th, Governor Ned Lamont signed House Bill 6380, also known as “An Act Concerning the Disclosure of Salary Ranges”. The new law went into effect on October 1st, 2021 for Connecticut employers. The law puts into place new provisions regarding the disclosure of salary ranges and wages, as well as an update to the Connecticut wage discrimination law, all with the hopes to help better combat wage and salary discrimination in the state.

Connecticut Salary Disclosure Overview

The new salary range disclosure law went into effect on October 1st, 2021. The new law, among being one of the first of its kind, creates new provisions concerning the discussion of compensation, as well as provides an update to the state's law concerning pay equity. 

The goal behind the new law and the updates that came with it, is to better protect employees against wage and salary discrimination as a whole.

The new law provided one small update to wage discrimination, changing the term "equal" to "comparable". Now the law states...

Employers may not discriminate compensation to employess of a different sex for comparable work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, and are performed under similair working conditions."

More importantly, however, the new law creates new requirements for the disclosure of salary ranges as an added attempt to prevent compensation discrimination.  Under the new legislation, and as of October 1, 2021, no employer in Connecticut may:

• Prohibit an employee from inquiring about, disclosing, or discussing the amount of his or her wages or the wages of another employee and vice versa that have been disclosed voluntarily;
• Require an employee to sign a waiver or other document denying their rights for such inquiries.
• Inquire, or direct a third party to inquire about a prospective employee's wage and salary history unless a prospective employee has voluntarily disclosed such information (except under federal or state law that specifically authorizes the disclosure or verification of salary history for employment purposes);
• Discharge, discipline, discriminate against, retaliate against, or otherwise penalize any employee for exercising their rights under this law.
• Fail or refuse to provide an applicant for employment the wage range for a position for which the applicant is applying, upon the earliest of (1) the applicant's request, or (2) prior to or at the time the applicant is made an offer of compensation;
• Fail or refuse to provide an employee the wage range for the employee's position upon (1) the hiring of the employee, (2) a change in the employee's position with the employer, or (3) the employee's first request for a wage range.

An employer who violates these regulations may be found liable for compensatory damages, attorney's fees and costs, punitive damages, and relief.

It is important to note that employers are NOT required to disclose the amount of wages paid to any employee under these regulations.

We also encourage employers to stay caught up with Connecticut Minimum Wage before deciding on a final wage range.

Your HR Business partner is available to discuss implementing these new regulations for your Company. Contact us today for questions regarding the new salary disclosure law!