Tesla, Schwab Penalized Under Colorado Job Ad Pay Disclosure Law

Tesla Inc. and Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. have received citations from Colorado’s labor department as more large companies emerge as targets under the state’s first-of-its-kind job ad salary disclosure law.

The state labor department provided to Bloomberg Law this week a full list of companies penalized under the pay transparency law, which mandates that employers include salary ranges for positions in job postings, among other requirements.

Also on the list, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Twitter faced fines in 2022 for alleged violations of the state law, as first reported by the Colorado Sun.

These appear to be some of the first large, well-known companies in the US penalized under this emerging breed of pay transparency law. Colorado’s measure took effect in January 2021 and similar laws have since spread to California, New York City, and Washington state, with a statewide New York version set to take effect in September.

Outside Colorado, the laws have yielded hundreds of complaints from job seekers but few if any penalties.

The measures are aimed at improving pay equity by giving job applicants—particularly women and workers of color—more information about expected salary range. The Hawaii and Illinois statehouses passed similar bills this year that are awaiting their governors’ signatures.

Since the law took effect, Charles Schwab and Tesla have faced citations but no fines, along with 12 other companies, including Cardinal Health Inc., according to the department’s list. Ten more companies including Big Lots Stores Inc. have reached voluntary compliance agreements without the department issuing citations, with fines totaling $51,500 attached to those agreements, the list showed.

Further details about Colorado’s enforcement were scarce. Representatives of the labor department said they weren’t immediately able to provide the dates of fines and citations or dollar amounts of each individual fine.

Violations under the Colorado law could range from failing to include salary or employee benefits information in job ads to neglecting to notify current employees of promotional opportunities or satisfy the state’s recordkeeping requirements, according to a labor department guidance memo.

The state has issued a total of $237,000 in fines against five companies, according to the department.

The Lockheed and Twitter fines appear to account for the bulk of that total, as they weren’t included among three smaller companies that the Colorado Sun reported in July 2022 had faced combined fines of $44,500.

The figures show some of the companies were investigated for multiple alleged violations, since the law caps penalties at $10,000 per violation.

Companies named on the list didn’t immediately provide comment on the fines and citations. Twitter auto-replied with a poop emoji. Cardinal Health declined to comment.