Virginia job postings and salary ranges in 2026

Do Virginia job postings have to include salary ranges now

Yes. Virginia’s current law says job postings and hiring advertisements must include a wage or salary range for the position, and the Department of Labor and Industry says that requirement begins July 1, 2026. The safest reading is simple: if you post the job in Virginia, include the range in the post.

The rule is not a vague suggestion. The Virginia Code section on wage transparency defines a “wage or salary range” as the minimum and maximum wage or salary for the position, and it requires disclosure in public and internal postings for jobs, promotions, transfers, and other employment opportunities. The state also published an employer guidance page saying newly posted ads on any platform should include the expected range.

People often get the trigger wrong. The law is about the posting or advertisement, not just the final offer. That means the salary range belongs in the job ad itself, whether the ad is public or internal. If a recruiter posts on behalf of the employer, the employer still needs that posting to carry the range. The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry says employers should review public-facing and internal postings for compliance.

The part people also miss is the definition of “range.” Virginia does not ask for a guess. The Code says the range must be set in good faith and can be based on an applicable pay scale, a previously determined range, the actual range for equivalent positions, or the budgeted amount for the position. That matters because a posting that says only “competitive pay” or “DOE” does not give applicants the range the statute describes.

The rule is broad, but it is not limitless. The statute is written around postings and ads for jobs, promotions, transfers, and other employment opportunities. The cleanest operational approach is to treat every role announcement as covered unless your counsel has confirmed a narrow exception applies. That is the part that is inconvenient, because old templates, recruiter copy, and internal promotion notices all need the same review.

Virginia already shows what this looks like in practice. The Commonwealth’s own job listings display a hiring range, such as hourly or annual pay ranges on posted openings. That is not a legal defense by itself, but it is a clear signal that state employers are already structuring postings around the range requirement. The public jobs site also exposes the range to applicants before they apply.

The inconvenient part is that the range has to be real. A range pulled from a stale requisition or one that no longer matches the budget can create a compliance problem, because the statute ties the definition to good-faith payroll data. Employers should check the active pay band, the current budget, and the recruiter script before publishing. Virginia’s DHRM salary structure pages show that state pay bands are updated, which is another reason old ranges should not be copied forward without review.

If you are posting in Virginia, the practical step is to put the range in the same place applicants read the title and duties. Then make sure the number matches the budgeted amount or pay scale used for that role, and make the same change in any mirrored posting, referral email, or internal board. DevConnect’s own platform exists for coordinated testing and hiring workflows, and its public site can be a useful example of how a structured listing should present role details clearly. https://devconnectplatform.com

The part people get wrong in a rush is thinking a salary band can be hidden in a private conversation after the application. Under the Virginia rule, the posting itself is where the disclosure belongs. Another common mistake is posting a narrow minimum with a wide, unofficial maximum that the team would never actually pay. The statute calls for a good-faith range, not a range that exists only to satisfy a form.

The consequence of missing the range is not just a bad applicant experience. Virginia’s wage transparency law creates a cause of action and civil penalty framework, so the risk is legal, not merely reputational. If your hiring process touches Virginia workers, the job is to make the posting match the law before it goes live, not to fix it after the first applicant notices the omission.

One more point is important because it is easy to confuse with older law and older habits. Virginia’s current rule is about salary transparency in postings, and the Department of Labor and Industry says it applies beginning July 1, 2026. If you last checked Virginia pay disclosure rules before that date, you are likely looking at an outdated version of the rule set. The current Code section is the one that controls now.

So the direct answer is yes. Virginia job postings have to include salary ranges now, and the range needs to be a real good-faith range that appears in the posting itself. If you are hiring there, update the template, the recruiter workflow, and any internal promotion notice that is shared as an employment opportunity.