Washington Pay Transparency Law: The 2026 Employer Guide
Date Published
Washington Pay Transparency Law: The 2026 Employer Guide
If you hire in Washington, every job posting you publish is a potential lawsuit. Since 2023, Washington's Equal Pay and Opportunities Act (EPOA) has required most employers to list a salary range in each posting — and plaintiffs' firms have filed hundreds of class actions over postings that left it out. In 2025, the state rewrote the rules: you now get a short window to fix a bad posting before penalties attach. But that grace period is temporary. It expires on July 27, 2027, and once it does, a single noncompliant posting can again trigger statutory damages with no chance to cure. This guide walks you through what Washington requires in 2026, who is covered, what changed under Senate Bill 5408, and the concrete steps that keep your postings — and your pay structure — defensible before the window closes.
TL;DR
- Washington's EPOA (RCW 49.58.110) requires employers with 15 or more employees to disclose a salary range or wage scale — plus a general description of benefits and other compensation — in every job posting.
- Senate Bill 5408 (effective July 27, 2025) added a five-business-day cure period: fix a flagged posting within five business days and you owe no penalties — but only through July 27, 2027.
- Penalties run $100 to $5,000 per violation, plus attorneys' fees; an affected applicant chooses either an administrative claim or a private lawsuit, not both.
- The law also bans asking about salary history and protects employees' right to discuss their own pay.
- Your strongest defense is a salary range tied to a real job-evaluation method, not a number picked to fill a field.
What the Washington EPOA requires
The core rule lives in RCW 49.58.110. If you employ 15 or more people, every job posting must state the wage scale or salary range for the role, plus a general description of all other benefits and compensation you offer. That second part trips people up: it is not enough to list a pay band. You also have to describe bonuses, commissions, paid time off, insurance, retirement contributions, and any other meaningful compensation tied to the job.
The range you post has to reflect what you genuinely expect to pay at the time of posting. You cannot list $60,000 to $250,000 to dodge the rule. If a hire realistically lands between $95,000 and $115,000, that is your range.
Who counts as a covered employer
The 15-employee threshold counts your total headcount, not just your Washington staff. Out-of-state employers are covered too if they engage in business in Washington and recruit for jobs that could be filled by a Washington-based worker — including fully remote roles open to Washington applicants. If a Seattle resident can apply and do the job from home, your posting needs Washington-compliant pay information.
What counts as a "job posting"
A posting is any solicitation intended to recruit applicants for a specific position. That includes listings you publish directly and listings a third party publishes on your behalf, whether electronic or printed. Practically, if it names a role and invites applications, it needs the pay range and benefits description.
What Senate Bill 5408 changed in 2025
For two years, the EPOA gave plaintiffs a powerful weapon: a missing pay range on a single posting could support a class action, with statutory damages for every applicant. Washington employers faced hundreds of class-action lawsuits starting in the summer of 2023. Governor Bob Ferguson signed Senate Bill 5408 on May 20, 2025, and it took effect July 27, 2025. Here is what it changed.
Before SB 5408 | After SB 5408 |
|---|---|
A noncompliant posting exposed you to damages immediately | You get five business days to cure after written notice |
Wage "scale or range" required even for single-rate jobs | You may post a single fixed amount when only one rate is offered |
Scraped or republished postings could still trigger liability | Postings digitally replicated and published without your consent are exempt |
Overlapping remedies created stacking risk | Applicants choose one path: administrative claim or private lawsuit |
Two of these matter most day to day. First, you can now advertise a single fixed amount — say, "$28.50 per hour" — when that is the only rate on offer, including for internal transfers. Second, the cure period gives you a real chance to fix mistakes before they cost you. But read the next section carefully, because that chance has an expiration date.
The cure period is on the clock
The five-business-day cure period runs from July 27, 2025 through July 27, 2027. Here is how it works: any person can give you written notice that a posting fails to meet the requirements. From receipt of that notice, you have five business days to correct the posting and tell any third-party site to correct it too. Cure it in time, and no damages, penalties, or other relief may be assessed for that posting.
After July 27, 2027, the safety net disappears. Once the window closes, a noncompliant posting can again support a claim with no opportunity to fix it first. Treat the next year as your runway to get every template, applicant-tracking-system field, and recruiter workflow into compliance — so you are not relying on a cure period that no longer exists.
Penalties and how the lawsuits work
SB 5408 defined two separate, exclusive remedies. An affected applicant can pursue administrative remedies through Washington's Department of Labor & Industries, including civil penalties up to $1,000 and statutory damages between $100 and $5,000 per violation. Or the applicant can file a private civil action to recover statutory damages of no less than $100 and no more than $5,000 per violation, plus reasonable attorneys' fees and costs. They cannot do both for the same violation.
The attorneys'-fees provision is what fuels the litigation. When each posting can carry up to $5,000 per affected applicant and the winner recovers legal costs, a firm can make a business out of scanning job boards for missing ranges. That is exactly what happened in 2023 and 2024. Your best protection is boring: postings that are compliant the moment they go live.
If you operate in more than one state, Washington is one piece of a widening map. Our multi-state pay transparency compliance guide shows how Washington's rules line up against California, Illinois, and others so you can build one process instead of fifty.
Beyond postings: salary history and wage secrecy
The EPOA is broader than job ads. Two other provisions catch employers off guard.
You cannot seek an applicant's wage or salary history, and you cannot require that a candidate's prior pay meet a threshold to be considered. That ban even covers an "optional" salary-history question on an application form. You may confirm history only if the applicant volunteers it, or after you have made an offer that includes compensation.
You also cannot stop employees from discussing their pay. Workers have the right to inquire about, disclose, compare, and discuss their own wages and benefits with others, and you cannot retaliate against them for doing so. On top of that, you must provide the wage scale or salary range for a role to an employee who is offered an internal transfer or promotion, upon request. Washington L&I lays out these rights in its Equal Pay and Opportunities Act guidance.
How to stay compliant — and defensible
Compliance is not just pasting a number into a posting. A range you cannot explain is a range you cannot defend if an applicant, an employee, or L&I asks how you set it. Work through this checklist:
- Audit your live postings now. Confirm each one lists a range or fixed rate plus a benefits description, and route them through a single approved template.
- Fix your ATS and third-party feeds. Most violations come from postings that syndicate to job boards without the pay fields. Make the range a required field.
- Ground every range in a real method. Tie your bands to a defensible job-evaluation process rather than gut feel. The point-factor method scores each role against weighted compensable factors — skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions — so your ranges reflect the work, not the negotiation.
- Document how ranges map to jobs. Clear salary bands keep postings consistent and make internal-transfer disclosures easy.
- Build for after July 2027. Assume no cure period. If a posting has to be right the first time, your process has to be right the first time.
For a deeper look at what makes a range hold up under scrutiny, see our guide to defensible pay ranges.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Washington pay transparency law apply to remote jobs? Yes. If a role can be performed from Washington and you are recruiting applicants who could fill it from the state, the posting needs a compliant pay range and benefits description — even if your company is based elsewhere.
What is the salary threshold for the range I post? There is no fixed dollar threshold. You must post the range you genuinely expect to pay for the role at the time of posting. A deliberately wide or unrealistic range does not satisfy the law.
How many employees triggers the law? Fifteen or more total employees, counted across your whole organization, not just your Washington workforce.
Can I post a single number instead of a range? Yes, since SB 5408. If you are offering only one rate for the position — including for an internal transfer — you may list that single fixed amount instead of a range.
What is the cure period and when does it end? From July 27, 2025 through July 27, 2027, you have five business days after receiving written notice to correct a noncompliant posting and avoid penalties. After July 27, 2027, that opportunity to cure no longer applies.
What are the penalties for a noncompliant posting? An affected applicant can seek administrative remedies (civil penalties up to $1,000 and statutory damages of $100 to $5,000 per violation) or a private lawsuit (statutory damages of $100 to $5,000 per violation plus attorneys' fees and costs) — but not both.
Can I ask applicants for their salary history? No. Washington bars you from seeking an applicant's pay history or requiring it to meet a threshold. You may only confirm history the applicant volunteers, or history disclosed after you extend a compensation offer.
Get your ranges audit-ready before the window closes
You have about a year before Washington's cure period disappears. The employers who sleep well are the ones whose postings are compliant on day one because their pay ranges come from a documented, repeatable method. See how PointFactors builds defensible ranges with AI-assisted point-factor job evaluation, or book a demo to pressure-test your current ranges against Washington's rules.
Justin Hampton is the founder and CEO of PointFactors.