A pay transparency bill dissolved in the Oregon Legislature in 2023.
Mac’s List, a Pacific Northwest-centered job board, will now require employers to include salary information in job listings.
It’s a move meant to improve transparency and equitable hiring. And if a recent legislative effort is an indication, it could one day become the law of land in Oregon.
Mac’s List announced this week it updated its platform to require employers who post job advertisements to include salary information. List founder Mac Prichard told Oregon Business the move was in part driven by fairness. Most — around 90% — employers who use the site already provide such information.
“It’s a good move for both employers and job seekers,” he says. “Research shows it increases the number of applications a listing receives. And it’s a good move for job seekers because it allows them to focus on jobs that pay what they’re looking for.”
Mac’s List began in 2001 as an email list Prichard, the owner of the public relations firm Prichard Communications, regularly shared with friends and colleagues. That eventually grew into a top career resource for employers and job seekers in Oregon and Washington. Today, Prichard, 65, hosts a top-rated podcast, “Find Your Dream Job,” and speaks at job conferences around the world. (Prichard closed Prichard Communications at the end of 2022 but has kept Mac’s List going.)
He points to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management that says including salary information draws more applicants and makes firms more competitive in the job market.
Beyond that, salary information in job listings helps reduce gender and racial pay gaps, as well as improve recruitment and retention and employee satisfaction, Prichard said. Women spend less time considering job offers than men do and are more likely to accept the first offer they receive rather than negotiating. This might help explain why women earn 10% less than men their first year out of college, according to researchers from Boston University.
Employers might withhold salary details in order to have the upper hand in negotiations, but there are other reasons as well. According to research by Mac’s List, they might want to ensure applicants are excited about a job, not the pay. They might want to avoid salary questions from current employees, or wage wars with competitors. They might even want to reserve the opportunity to pay a truly exceptional candidate a higher salary.
In a press release announcing the change, Prichard said it’s “only a matter of time” before pay transparency is required in Oregon. Since 2021, five states — including California and Washington — have passed laws requiring employers to include salary data in job postings.
Oregon was one of 16 states to consider pay transparency bills in 2023. Senate Bill 925, would have required employers to include an hourly rate or salary range in job listings, but the proposal was set aside after legal experts warned the bill could be overturned for free speech concerns, The Oregonian reported.
Sen. Kayse Jama, the bill’s Senate sponsor, does not plan to reintroduce it in 2025, though that could change, he wrote via email.
“Secrecy around wages has long exacerbated discriminatory wage and hiring practices,” he wrote. “Research shows that when job applicants are clearly informed about the context for negotiations — such as salary ranges and benefits — disproportionate negotiation outcomes diminish. Clearly posted wage ranges are an important tool in closing gender and racial wage gaps.”
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