New Jersey’s Pay and Benefits Transparency Act took effect June 1, 2025. Most owners I talk to heard “we have to put salary in the ad now” and stopped there. That’s about a third of what the law asks for. The benefits line and the promotion notice are where small employers quietly fall out of compliance — usually without anyone telling them.
First: does this apply to you?
Two things have to be true. You have 10 or more employees over 20 or more calendar weeks, and you do business, employ people, or take job applications in New Jersey.
Read that employee count carefully, because it’s the first place people get it wrong. It isn’t 10 employees in New Jersey. It’s 10 employees, period — the state counts your workforce whether those people sit in Red Bank or remotely in Ohio. Four people in Monmouth County and eight spread across other states puts you over the line.
The flip side matters too: you don’t have to be a New Jersey company. An out-of-state employer hiring for a job that will be performed in New Jersey follows the same posting rules.
What has to be in the posting
Three things, in every ad for a new position, a transfer opportunity, or a promotion — internal postings included:
- The pay. The hourly wage or salary for the role, or a range. Not “competitive.” Not “commensurate with experience.” A real number or a real range.
- A general description of the benefits. Health, life and disability insurance, paid time off, training, retirement — whatever you actually offer, in general terms. No plan documents or premium costs required.
- Other compensation programs the person would be eligible for — commissions, bonuses, profit sharing.
The second and third items are the ones getting skipped. An owner updates the salary line, feels done, and posts an ad with no benefits sentence in it. That posting isn’t compliant.
The range trick that doesn’t work
The obvious workaround is a range so wide it says nothing: $45,000–$140,000. New Jersey’s Department of Labor has said that doesn’t fly. Its guidance and proposed rules call for a good-faith range with a real floor and ceiling, with the spread not exceeding 60% of the bottom number. On a $60,000 floor, $60,000–$96,000 works; $60,000–$120,000 doesn’t. “$60,000 and up” doesn’t either — an open-ended range has no ceiling.
Worth knowing: the 60% figure comes from rules the state proposed in fall 2025 that have not been formally adopted. It’s guidance, not yet binding regulation — but it tells you exactly how the agency that enforces this law reads it, which is the only opinion that matters when someone reviews your postings. Write the range as if the rule were final.
The promotion rule almost nobody knows about
This is the sleeper. Before you make a promotion decision, you have to make reasonable efforts to let current employees in the affected department know the opportunity exists. Not announce it after. Before.
Reasonable effort means something practical: post it somewhere visible in the workplace where those employees actually go, and on your intranet if you have one. There are narrow carve-outs — a promotion awarded strictly on years of experience or performance, or one made on an emergent basis because of an unforeseen event. If you’re promoting someone into a new title with more money and nobody else on the team knew it was open, assume the notice requirement applied.
What it costs to get it wrong
Civil penalties run up to $300 for a first violation and up to $600 for each one after that. For one ad, survivable. The math changes when you realize each non-compliant posting is its own violation — six open roles posted the same bad way is six violations, not one.
Two pieces of relief: the same job advertised on your site, Indeed, and LinkedIn counts once, not three times. And there’s no private right of action — an applicant can’t sue you directly over a posting. Enforcement runs through the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development, and NJDOL has been proactive, running outreach at employers rather than waiting on complaints. Small businesses aren’t the headline target, but “they’re busy with bigger fish” is not a compliance plan.
Fix it once, at the template level
Put the pay line, the benefits sentence, and the range logic into your standard job posting template — then it’s right on every role without anyone remembering. Our hiring tools cover the posting, the interview, and the questions you can’t legally ask.
See the Hiring Tools →Ten minutes, and you’re done
- Add a pay line and a two-sentence benefits paragraph to your standard posting template, permanently.
- Check your ranges — ceiling no more than 60% above the floor, never open-ended.
- Pull up every job you have live right now (your site, Indeed, LinkedIn, a recruiter’s page) and fix the ones missing benefits.
- Pick where internal promotions get posted — break room board, Slack, intranet — and use it every time.
- If you use a staffing agency, ask in writing how they’re handling this. Different rules apply to temporary help service firms.
One last thing. Publishing a range surfaces a second problem: your current employees read it too. If the range you post for a new hire sits above what someone already doing that job makes, you will hear about it. That’s not a reason to post a bad range — it’s a reason to look at your comp bands before you post, not after.
Common questions
Do I have to comply if I only have a few employees in New Jersey?
Probably yes. The threshold counts your total workforce — 10 or more employees over 20 or more calendar weeks — whether they work in New Jersey or somewhere else. If you have 10 people total and you do business or take applications in New Jersey, you’re covered.
Can I just write “competitive salary” or “depends on experience”?
No. The posting has to state the hourly wage or salary, or a good-faith range with an actual floor and ceiling. Vague phrasing and open-ended ranges like “$60,000 and up” don’t satisfy the requirement.
How detailed does the benefits description have to be?
General is fine. A short description of what you offer — health, life and disability coverage, paid time off, training, retirement — plus any bonus or commission programs. You don’t have to publish plan documents, carrier names, or what the coverage costs.
Does this apply to internal job postings and promotions too?
Yes. Postings for transfers and promotions carry the same disclosure requirements, and separately you have to make reasonable efforts to notify employees in the affected department about a promotion opportunity before you make the decision.
What happens if a posting is wrong?
Civil penalties of up to $300 for a first violation and up to $600 for each subsequent one, enforced by the state Department of Labor. Each non-compliant posting is a separate violation, though the same job advertised on several sites counts once.
Can an applicant sue me over a non-compliant posting?
Not directly — the law doesn’t create a private right of action. Enforcement sits with the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development. That doesn’t make non-compliance free; it just means the penalty comes from the state rather than a lawsuit.