Pay Transparency Laws: Virginia and Maine 2026

What employers should know about key developments this week:

Virginia and Maine Pay Transparency Laws: Both states require employers to disclose compensation ranges in job postings starting this summer (Virginia on July 1 and Maine on July 29), with key distinctions that will affect compliance strategies across industries.
Remote Work Compliance Risks: Pay transparency laws can apply to any employer with even a single remote employee working in a covered state, which means that multistate and remote-first employers face heightened exposure regardless of where they are headquartered.
Evolving Pay Equity Landscape: From salary history bans to pay transparency mandates, states continue to layer on new pay equity requirements, making proactive human resources (HR) training and policy audits more critical than ever.

In this episode of Employment Law This Week^®, Epstein Becker Green attorneys Adam M. Tomiak and Nancy Gunzenhauser Popper discuss Virginia’s and Maine’s new pay transparency laws, how they differ from other state laws, what the growing patchwork of pay equity requirements means for employers, and the steps organizations should take now to prepare their recruiters, HR teams, and job posting practices.

State Pay Transparency Laws in 2026: Maine and Virginia Join the Ranks
Play
May 20, 2026

Transcript

[00:00:03] George Whipple: Welcome to Employment Law This Week. I’m George Whipple. Pay transparency laws - In an effort to improve pay equity, a growing number of states are turning to these transparency provisions, which require employers to disclose compensation information. Virginia and Maine are the latest states to add these regulations - Virginia’s law takes effect July 1 and Maine’s July 29. Epstein Becker Green’s Adam Tomiak tells us more about these new laws.

[00:00:37] Adam Tomiak: Like many other laws of this nature, both require disclosure of compensation information in job postings, though neither require any disclosure of benefits information, as may be required in other jurisdictions. Some important differences that distinguish these new laws from varying other laws nationally on the topic include that in Maine, there is a ten-employee coverage threshold that may provide relief for smaller employers. In Virginia, the law combines pay transparency with another key law on the topic of pay equity, the salary history ban.

[00:01:11] George Whipple: Maine employers will also be required to provide a salary range to current employees upon request. Epstein Becker Green’s Nancy Gunzenhauser Popper tells us more about this growing trend.

[00:01:25] Nancy Gunzenhauser Popper: Different states are approaching pay equity laws with slightly different versions. This started out with laws prohibiting employers from paying employees differently on the basis of sex and expanded into other protected categories. Then, there were a round of laws that stopped employers from asking applicants, "How much do you currently make?" And those were called salary history bans. The pay transparency on job postings is the latest in the round of pay equity laws, and hopes to get employers thinking about what they want to pay employees instead of using past pay practices to establish current pay for employees.

[00:02:07] George Whipple: And what does this patchwork of pay equity laws mean for employers?

[00:02:12] Adam Tomiak: These laws may be implicated any time your managers, HR, or recruiters, both internal and external, are interacting with candidates about joining your workforce. Educating these stakeholders on various topics relating to recruiting is critical, including questions they cannot ask candidates, information that they must provide candidates, and general best practices for securing the right candidates while avoiding unnecessary legal risk.

[00:02:37] Nancy Gunzenhauser Popper: Employers need to stay on top of where they actually have employees. Some of these laws will apply even if you just have one remote employee working in that state. And so, to be mindful of the fact that pay transparency may be required on job postings, even if the job will be fully remote. Employers should also be evaluating their current pay practices and, in light of Maine's new law, be prepared to offer a salary range for current employees upon request.

[00:03:10] George Whipple: Thanks, Nancy and Adam. And thank you for watching. We’ll see you next time.

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