Pay transparency for job postings
Table of Contents
Last updated: July 1, 2025
Washington state law requires the University to disclose in job postings for staff and student positions the pay range or fixed (if only a fixed wage is offered for the job opening*) and a general description of all benefits and other compensation to be offered to the hired applicant. Additionally, upon request, an employee in a staff or student position offered an internal transfer or promotion must be provided with the wage scale or salary range of their new position.
To ensure compliance with pay transparency posting requirements, hiring managers should—as part of planning for a recruitment and before posting a position—identify the pay range or fixed wage to be offered the hired applicant and collect information to include in the summary of other compensation.
*Effective July 27, 2025, Washington state law requires that employers post a fixed wage amount rather than a scale or range if the employer is only offering a fixed wage for an opening.
Job posting
A job posting is an announcement intended to recruit job applicants for a specific available position that includes qualifications for desired applicants. This includes recruitments done directly by the UW or indirectly through a third party and includes electronic and hard copy postings. Examples include, but are not limited to, jobs posted through UW’s applicant tracking systems, Handshake, listservs, websites such as LinkedIn or Indeed, department webpages and hard copies placed on physical bulletin boards or given to potential applicants.
Advertising that links to a job posting is often part of a recruitment strategy. Job advertisements that do not list qualifications or refer to a specific position are not required to include the wage, benefits and other compensation.
The following social media examples are not considered a job posting:
- “Custodian jobs available. Apply now online.”
- “My team is hiring a Grants Manager! Find out more and apply online.”
Pay range
The pay range that is disclosed in a job posting is intended to provide applicants with the most reasonable and genuinely expected range of compensation for the job. If a job posting does not offer a fixed wage, it should use a range with a minimum and maximum.
Hiring range maximums outside of the default associated with the job profile for professional staff postings require Compensation office approval prior to posting. Compensation office approval is also required prior to posting hiring ranges for professional staff positions Grade 11 and above.
The Compensation office cannot approve offers outside of the pay range advertised on job postings. Hiring managers should take the following steps to ensure that posted pay ranges are competitive and accurate:
- Advertise pay ranges that are broad enough to accommodate variations in experience that qualified candidates may bring to the position and account for any flexibility you may afford should a finalist counteroffer.
- Establish processes for regularly reviewing posted pay ranges to make sure they are accurate and competitive and request that your recruiting office partner update the job posting if needed. This is especially important if you are working on an extended recruitment over many months. While your recruiting office partner cannot revise the pay range in job postings to accommodate an offer to an identified finalist, we can update the range as needed during a recruitment as described above.
- Communicate the posted pay range to search team members when candidates are referred. This will ensure candidates receive consistent and accurate information.
- Review the pay range with candidates during both the phone screening and interview processes.
Updating pay ranges
If the pay rate or range changes after publishing a job posting, the posting must be updated to reflect the changed information. Circumstances for changes may include:
- Pay range revisions because of collective bargaining, new salary surveys, or minimum wage laws.
- A recruitment strategy where the hiring range is revised to further build an applicant pool.
General description of all benefits and other compensation
A general description of all benefits should provide the applicant with the most reasonable and genuinely expected benefits to be offered to the hired candidate. These may include health care benefits, retirement benefits, the number of paid days off and other benefits that must be reported for federal tax purposes.
Other compensation may include forms of compensation that would be offered to the hired applicant in addition to their base pay such as overtime, premiums, differentials, recruitment incentives and standby and/or callback pay.
The total monetary value of benefits and other compensation does not need to be provided. In electronic job postings, a general description of benefits and other compensation may be used if a link is provided with more detailed information. If the benefits or other compensation change, the posting must be updated to reflect the changed information.
Staff Job Postings
All job postings will display the position’s pay range, which is the pay range associated with the job profile the position is in. However, for job postings for professional staff positions, hiring managers may elect to display a narrower hiring range within the minimum and maximum associated with the job profile. Use the Workday report R0028 to find the default pay ranges by job profile, using the job profile’s job code.
There is also a space to provide a description of other compensation, which is required for job postings for classified positions. Overtime eligibility must be included in job postings for all FLSA nonexempt positions and any FLSA exempt positions eligible for additional pay under collective bargaining agreements.
Hiring Managers will provide recruiters with other compensation information and a narrower professional staff pay range for the job posting:
Campus – Use the “Additional Requisition Notes” field of the Workday Recruitment Questionnaire
Medical centers – With your partnership, your recruiter will assist in obtaining this information for you
All job postings in the applicant tracking system include a standard statement about benefits with links to more information relevant to the position.
Contract covered job postings
The default pay range for contract covered job postings is provided as an hourly range for hourly paid positions and a monthly range for salaried positions. For example:
- Hourly: $22.65–$30.39 per hour
- Salaried: $3,926–$5,267 per month
Job postings will reflect these default ranges which should not be overwritten except when a salaried position is less than full-time and the default range should be updated to reflect the expected FTE against the full-time rate, e.g., “75% of $3,926–$5,267 per month.”
Summary of other compensation for classified staff job postings
The “Other compensation” field should provide information on compensation that would be offered to the hired applicant in addition to their base pay. This must include overtime eligibility, but may also include premiums, differentials, recruitment incentives, standby pay, callback pay, and holiday premium, as applicable. For example:
This position is overtime eligible. The hired applicant will receive shift differential for all paid hours, as well as standby pay, call back pay, and—when directed to work on a designated holiday—premium pay at the overtime rate.
This position is overtime eligible. Shift differential: $1.00 per hour for evening shift. Certification pay: $1.25 per hour.
Summary of benefits for classified staff job postings
Recruiting teams will ensure that job postings include the appropriate benefits summary for classified jobs.
Professional staff, ICA Contract Staff, and Husky Health Physicians
The default pay range for professional staff, ICA contract staff and Husky Health Physician job postings is provided as an hourly range for hourly paid positions and a monthly range for salaried positions. For example:
- Hourly: $22.65–$30.39 per hour
- Salaried: $3,926–$5,267 per month
If the position is less than full-time, the posting should include the FTE and the monthly rate of pay, e.g., “75% of $3,925–$5,267 per month.”
Summary of other compensation and benefits for professional staff postings
The “Other compensation” field must include overtime eligibility but may also include information on compensation that would be offered to the hired applicant in addition to their established pay range such as recruitment incentives. For example:
The hired applicant is eligible for a signing bonus of $1,000 and/or a relocation incentive when having to move to accept a University position.
Recruiting teams will ensure that job postings include the appropriate benefits summary for the job type.
External postings
For recruitments not managed through the applicant tracking system, job postings must include a rate of pay or pay range and standard descriptions of benefits and other compensation specific to the position. Your recruiting office partner can review external job postings to ensure they comply with Washington’s pay transparency law.