States That Require Salary Ranges in Remote Job Postings

Which states now require salary ranges in remote job postings

States that now require salary ranges in remote job postings include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Maine, and Virginia. The common mistake is assuming a remote posting is exempt because the company is elsewhere. Several laws cover the posting when the job can be performed in the state, even if the employer is out of state or advertises nationally.

The exact trigger is not the same everywhere. Some states focus on the worker’s primary place of work, some on whether the employer does business in the state or takes applications there, and some on the employer’s headcount. Massachusetts says the posting rule applies to positions where the primary place of work is Massachusetts, and Washington’s rule covers employers based on employee count, including workers without a physical presence in Washington.

Connecticut is one of the clearest examples of why remote postings need review before publish. Connecticut’s labor department FAQ asks whether the act applies to applicants outside the physical confines of Connecticut who apply remotely to a Connecticut employer, which shows the remote scenario is squarely within the law’s scope analysis. New Jersey is also explicit that if an employer does business, employs persons, or takes applications for employment within New Jersey, its postings must comply even when it advertises nationally or accepts applications from anywhere.

A useful way to think about this is simple: if a remote role could be performed from that state, the safer assumption is that the state’s posting law may apply. Colorado’s guidance has long treated remote roles as covered when the role could be filled and performed by someone in Colorado. Washington’s rule likewise says employer size includes employees who do not have a physical presence in Washington, so remote teams do not avoid coverage by staying dispersed.

The states most people miss are the newer ones. Maine enacted a statewide posting requirement effective July 1, 2026, and Virginia enacted a pay transparency law effective in July 2026 that requires wage or salary disclosure in public and internal postings. Those dates matter because a lot of old summaries still stop at the earlier wave of transparency laws and leave out the most recent additions.

Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Illinois, California, Colorado, Nevada, Connecticut, Washington, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maine, and Virginia are the states to check first for remote postings. That list is about current posting laws, not every separate wage-history or anti-retaliation rule, so employers still need to check local ordinances and the job’s actual work location before publishing.

The part people get wrong is trying to use a single nationwide template. A posting that is compliant in one state can fail in another if it leaves out the range, uses an open-ended range, or omits benefits where required. New Jersey’s guidance says the posting can include the exact wage or salary or a range, but the range should have both a bottom and a top number. Washington requires the wage scale or salary range, or a fixed wage if only a fixed amount is offered.

The inconvenient part is that remote roles often need location-specific pay language. New Jersey says pay postings must comply if the employer takes applications within New Jersey, and California, Colorado, and Washington have all produced job postings that show pay ranges tied to location or class. If you hire nationally, the job can still need a state-specific range line for each covered jurisdiction, or a posting structure that clearly identifies the covered locations.

If you are publishing one remote role across many states, the practical step is to map where the role can legally be performed, then check each of those states’ posting rules before the job goes live. For some jobs, one compliant national range works. For others, the compliant version is a set of ranges by location, because the state law is tied to where the employee works or where the employer takes applications.

A second mistake is confusing salary-range rules with laws that only apply after an interview or offer. Nevada, for example, has wage or salary range disclosure obligations in the public sector after an interview, but that is not the same as a general remote job posting law. If you are checking a private-sector remote posting, do not mix interview-stage disclosure rules with posting-stage disclosure rules.

For employers that want a clean workflow, the posting review should happen before the job is shared externally. That is the point where you decide whether the job needs a range, whether the range must be localized, and whether benefits or other compensation details also have to appear. DevConnect’s own platform note is a good example of the kind of workflow employers use for closed-test recruiting: put the process in one place, keep the rules visible, and publish only after the posting meets the applicable standard.

If you want the short operational answer, use this checklist: identify the states where the remote role can be performed, check whether the state covers postings based on worker location, employer presence, or applications received, and then add the salary range before posting. The states with current salary-range posting requirements for remote roles are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Maine, and Virginia.

If you are comparing sources, the cleanest public references are the state labor department pages and the statutes they point to. Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Washington all publish direct guidance that explains how the rule applies to remote work or to employers with multistate hiring. Those pages are the ones to use when you are deciding whether a specific posting needs a range.

For teams that want to centralize recruiting rules, keep the posting language and the application workflow aligned before the job opens. That avoids the common failure mode where a recruiter copies an old remote template, posts it in a covered state, and only discovers the missing salary range after the job is already live and applicants have seen it.

If you are also managing tester or hiring workflows for app launches, keep the process on your own owned channels and use the same habit of checking the rule before publishing. If you need a place to organize that kind of work, the DevConnect platform is here: https://devconnectplatform.com.

FAQ

Do all remote jobs in these states need a salary range? No. Coverage depends on the state’s trigger, such as where the work can be performed, whether the employer does business there, or whether the employer meets a headcount threshold. The job still needs a state-by-state check before posting.

Do these laws usually require benefits to be listed too? Some do, and some do not. New Jersey and Washington require more than pay information in postings, while Connecticut focuses on wage range disclosure at the applicant stage. Always check the state’s posting rules, not a general summary.

Does a remote job posted nationally have to follow every state law at once? Not always, but it often has to follow more than one. The better practice is to identify every state where the job can be performed or where applicants are accepted, then apply the strictest applicable posting rule to that listing.

Which states are the newest additions to remote salary-range posting rules? Maine and Virginia are the newest additions in the sources reviewed here, with laws taking effect in July 2026. That is why old checklists often miss them.

Where should I verify a specific state before posting? Start with the state labor department or the statute text, then check any FAQ or guidance page the agency has published. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington all provide direct agency guidance that explains remote coverage.