Columbus Pay Transparency Law: The 2026 Employer Guide

Columbus Pay Transparency Law: The 2026 Employer Guide

If you hire in Columbus, the rules for your job postings are about to change. The city already bans you from asking applicants about their salary history. Now it has gone a step further: covered employers will soon have to publish a reasonable salary range in every job posting. Mayor Andrew Ginther signed the new ordinance in November 2025, it took effect on December 3, 2025, and enforcement begins January 1, 2027. That timeline gives you a real runway — but it also means the work of building defensible ranges has to start now, not the week before enforcement. This guide breaks down exactly who is covered, what "reasonable" means, the penalties on the table, and the steps that get you compliant well ahead of the deadline.

TL;DR

• Columbus employers with 15 or more employees in the city must include a reasonable, good-faith salary range in job postings.
• The posting requirement took effect December 3, 2025; enforcement starts January 1, 2027.
• A separate Columbus ordinance already bans salary history questions (effective March 1, 2024), with penalties from $1,000 to $5,000 per violation.
• Exceptions include internal transfers and promotions, roles set by a collective bargaining agreement, and rehires within three years.
• Start now: audit your ranges, fix your posting templates, and train recruiters before the 2027 enforcement date.

What the Columbus pay transparency law actually requires

Columbus now has two related rules that work together. The first is a salary history ban. The second — the one most employers still need to prepare for — is a salary range disclosure requirement for job postings.

Under the new posting rule, a covered employer must "provide a reasonable salary range or scale for potential employment" in its job postings. The range has to be made in good faith, meaning it should reflect what you actually expect to pay for the role, not a throwaway span so wide it tells applicants nothing.

The salary history side of the law makes it unlawful to:

• ask job applicants about their current or prior wages, benefits, or other compensation;
• screen applicants based on their pay history;
• rely on pay history to decide whether to hire someone or what to pay them; or
• retaliate against an applicant who declines to share their salary history.

You can still talk with candidates about their pay expectations, including any unvested equity or deferred compensation they would give up by leaving their current job.

Who is covered

The Columbus rules apply to employers with 15 or more employees within the city of Columbus. That headcount threshold matches the approach in other Ohio cities, so if you have run the math for Cincinnati, Cleveland, or Toledo, the counting logic will feel familiar.

Coverage is tied to your presence and hiring in the city. If you post roles that will be performed in Columbus, or you recruit Columbus-based applicants, plan to treat those postings as covered. Job placement and referral agencies acting on behalf of a covered employer fall under the rules too.

Key dates you can't miss

Two dates matter most:

The posting requirement is technically already "in effect," but the city built in a grace period: it won't penalize employers for a missing or unreasonable range until January 1, 2027. Treat that gap as prep time, not a reason to wait.

What counts as a "reasonable" salary range

The ordinance doesn't hand you a fixed formula. Instead, it lists the factors that determine whether a range is reasonable. A good-faith range should reflect:

• your budget flexibility for the role;
• the anticipated range of experience among likely applicants;
• potential variation in the position's responsibilities;
• opportunities for growth in the role and beyond;
• the cost of living across locations where the work may be performed; and
• market research on comparable positions and pay.

The practical test is simple: could you explain to a regulator, in one paragraph, how you landed on the top and bottom numbers? If the answer is "we posted $60,000 to $180,000 to keep our options open," you have a problem. A range that wide isn't a good-faith estimate — it's an attempt to dodge the rule, and it's exactly the kind of posting enforcement will target.

Ranges hold up when they trace back to a consistent internal method for sizing jobs. That's where a structured point-factor method of job evaluation earns its keep: when every role is scored against the same weighted factors, your posted range has a paper trail instead of a guess behind it. If you want the fuller argument for why that matters under laws like this one, see our guide to building defensible pay ranges.

Exceptions to the rule

The Columbus ordinances don't apply in every situation. You are outside the requirements when:

• federal, state, or local law specifically authorizes reliance on salary history to set pay;
• the applicant or posting is for an internal transfer or promotion;
• an applicant volunteers salary history without being prompted (though you still can't rely on it to set pay);
• salary history surfaces during a background check or verification of non-salary information (again, you can't rely on it);
• you rehire someone within three years and already have their salary data; or
• pay for the role is set by a collective bargaining agreement.

Note the internal-transfer carve-out. You don't have to attach a range to a purely internal promotion posting — but the moment a role is open to outside applicants, the disclosure rule applies.

Penalties for getting it wrong

The salary history ban carries monetary penalties ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 per violation, and applicants can file complaints with the Columbus Community Relations Commission within six months of an alleged violation. The newer posting requirement adds penalties for covered employers who fail to include a reasonable good-faith range once enforcement begins in 2027.

Individually, those numbers look modest next to six-figure penalties in places like New York City. But they add up fast across a high-volume req load, and they travel with reputational risk. If you're weighing how enforcement is actually playing out across the country — the fines, the class actions, the cure periods — our breakdown of pay transparency penalties in 2026 puts the Columbus rules in national context.

How Columbus fits Ohio's patchwork

Columbus is the fourth major Ohio city to act on pay, joining Cincinnati and Toledo (salary history bans since 2020) and Cleveland, whose salary range posting rule is already live. If you operate across Ohio, you're now managing a patchwork: similar headcount thresholds, but different obligations city by city. Our Cleveland pay transparency law guide walks through that city's version, which is a useful comparison point because its posting requirement is already being enforced.

For multi-city employers, the cleanest path is to standardize upward: build ranges good enough to satisfy the strictest jurisdiction you operate in, then apply them everywhere. Maintaining a different posting standard for each Ohio city is a compliance headache waiting to happen.

Your Columbus compliance checklist

Here's what to do between now and January 1, 2027:

• Confirm coverage. Count your employees in the city. If you're at or above 15, you're in scope.
• Audit your current ranges. Are they defensible, or are they guesses? Tie each range to a repeatable job evaluation method.
• Run a pay equity check. Before you publish ranges, make sure they don't expose internal inequities. A pay equity audit surfaces problems while you can still fix them quietly.
• Update posting templates. Bake a salary range field into every external posting template so no req goes out without one.
• Fix your intake process. Kill any salary history question in your applications, screening scripts, and interview guides.
• Train recruiters and hiring managers. Everyone touching a posting or a candidate should know the rule and how to talk about ranges.
• Track other jurisdictions. If you hire beyond Columbus, map your obligations everywhere — Ohio and beyond.

Frequently asked questions

When does the Columbus salary range requirement start being enforced? The posting rule took effect December 3, 2025, but the city will not enforce penalties until January 1, 2027. Use the runway to get compliant early.

Does the Columbus law apply to remote jobs? If a role will be performed in Columbus or you're recruiting Columbus-based applicants, treat the posting as covered. When in doubt, include a good-faith range — it's low-cost insurance.

How many employees trigger coverage? Employers with 15 or more employees in the city of Columbus are covered by both the salary history ban and the salary range posting rule.

Can I still ask about salary expectations? Yes. The ban is on salary history, not on pay expectations. You can discuss what a candidate is looking for, including equity or deferred compensation they'd forfeit by leaving.

What makes a salary range "reasonable" under the law? A range is reasonable when it reflects good-faith factors like budget, expected experience, job responsibilities, growth opportunities, cost of living, and market data. An absurdly wide range isn't good faith.

Do internal promotions need a posted range? No. Internal transfers and promotions are exempt. The requirement kicks in when a role is open to external applicants.

What are the penalties? The salary history ban carries $1,000 to $5,000 per violation, enforced through the Columbus Community Relations Commission. The posting requirement adds penalties once enforcement begins in 2027.

Get your ranges ready before 2027

Columbus gave employers something rare: time. The best use of it is to stop treating salary ranges as a posting formality and start treating them as an output of a real job evaluation process. When your ranges are built on consistent, weighted factors, compliance stops being a scramble and becomes a byproduct of how you already size jobs.

See how PointFactors builds defensible, transparency-ready pay ranges — or explore our job evaluation platform to see the method behind the numbers.

Justin Hampton is the founder and CEO of PointFactors.