The states winning the fight for equal pay have one thing in common

What you probably already know: In California, companies must post salary ranges in all job postings. Colorado forces employers to include detailed descriptions of benefits. Washington state requires “internal” transparency for all job promotions or transfers, while Connecticut mandates that new hires must receive salary ranges and current employees have the right to request ranges for current roles. All told, many states with pay transparency laws have successfully closed or significantly narrowed the gender pay gap. California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Hawaii, along with Washington, D.C., have all either met or are close to achieving their goals. There are approximately 80 million women in the U.S. workforce.

Why it matters: Payscale’s 2026 Gender Pay Gap notes that pay transparency has become an important strategy for talent retention, adding that women who change jobs can now determine if they’ve been or will be paid fairly. When it was enacted into law in late 2022, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called New York’s statewide pay transparency law a “historic measure,” adding that it would become “a critical tool in our efforts to end pervasive pay gaps for women and people of color.” Governing, a website that provides news and analysis for people who lead public agencies, said Colorado’s 2021 pay transparency measure “sparked an international trend.”

What it means: Despite those victories, work remains. Nationally, women still earn just 82 cents per every dollar earned by men, a gap that translates to more than $14,000 per year and $1 million in lost wages over a 40-year career. The gender pay gap persists regardless of education level and includes women with master’s degrees and MBAs. It widens significantly among women older than 45, who earn just 71 cents for every dollar earned by men. Among older women executives it’s even lower at 69 cents, a decline from just a year ago. Women who work remotely earn just 76 cents. The top three jobs with a gender pay gap are wholesale and retail buyers; pharmacy technicians; and claims adjusters, examiners and investigators.

What happens next: The report notes that pay transparency sticks only when organizations can articulate how pay is determined, or at least why disparities exist, adding that companies must “actively monitor, document, justify and communicate pay decisions.” Pay transparency also gives companies a distinct competitive advantage in the never-ending war for talent. “Transparency works when it’s treated as a business process, not a checkbox,” Payscale Senior Employment Counsel Lulu Seikaly says. “Extremely wide pay ranges may comply with the letter of the law but not the spirit and are not viewed favorably by job candidates.”