The Washington State Equal Pay and Opportunities Act<\/a> (EPOA) seeks to address gaps in wages and advancement opportunities among employees and applicants by:<\/p>\n Employers cannot take any negative action against an employee for exercising their rights under the EPOA.<\/p>\n The following definitions are in place for the purposes of the EPOA:<\/p>\n Return to top<\/a><\/p> Employers must provide equal pay to similarly employed workers, except for specific reasons unrelated to gender, perceived gender or membership or perceived membership in a protected class such as:<\/p>\n Other reasons for a difference in pay that may be acceptable include job-related factors consistent with business need, reasons not based on or derived from a person\u2019s gender or perceived gender or membership or perceived membership in a protected class, and local minimum wage laws. Under the law, an individual\u2019s previous wage or salary history is not an acceptable reason for differences in pay among similarly employed workers.<\/p>\n Employees are similarly employed if the individuals work for the same employer, the performance of the job requires similar skill, effort, and responsibility, and the jobs are performed under similar working conditions. Job titles or job profiles alone are not determinative of whether employees are similarly employed.<\/p>\n Employers must not limit or deprive an employee of career advancement opportunities on the basis of a person’s gender, perceived gender or membership or perceived membership in a protected class, except for specific unrelated reasons, such as:<\/p>\n Other reasons for a difference in career advancement opportunities that may be acceptable include job-related factors consistent with business need and reasons that are not based on or derived from a gender-based differential and are not based on or derived from the employee being a member of a protected class.<\/p>\n Employers cannot prohibit employees from discussing their wages with other workers, make employees agree not to discuss their wages or require an employee to sign a document that prevents the employee from disclosing the amount of their wages.<\/p>\n Employees who have access to compensation information of other employees or applicants as part of their essential job functions are prohibited from disclosing the wages of the other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to such information, unless the disclosure is in response to a complaint or charge, in furtherance of an investigation, or consistent with the employer’s legal duty to provide the information and the disclosure is part of the employee’s essential job functions.<\/p>\n Return to top<\/a><\/p> When recruiting applicants for open positions, employers may not:<\/p>\n An employer may, however, confirm an applicant\u2019s wage or salary history if the applicant has voluntarily disclosed their wage or salary history or after the employer has negotiated and extended an offer of employment with compensation to the final candidate.<\/p>\n Employers must disclose in each posting<\/a> for each job opening the pay range, or fixed wage when only a fixed wage is offered, and a general description of all of the benefits and other compensation to be offered to the hired applicant. A job posting is any solicitation intended to recruit job applicants for a specific available position, either electronic or hard copy, that includes qualifications for desired applicants. This includes electronic postings in Workday Recruiting or Handshake as well as those made through a third-party such as LinkedIn or Indeed.com.<\/p>\n Upon request from an employee offered an internal transfer to a new position or promotion, the employer must provide the wage scale or salary posting.<\/p>\n\n
Definitions<\/h5>\n
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Employee rights<\/h4>\n
Equal pay<\/h5>\n
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Equal career advancement opportunities<\/h5>\n
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Open wage discussions<\/h5>\n
Job applicant rights<\/h4>\n
Prohibition on seeking wage or salary history<\/h5>\n
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Pay transparency for job postings<\/h5>\n