Wagelist.
Wagelist.

DC pay transparency law: the Wage Transparency Act salary range rules

Since June 30, 2024, any employer with at least one employee in Washington DC must publish the minimum and maximum projected salary or hourly pay in every job listing, disclose the existence of healthcare benefits before the first interview, and stop asking candidates about wage history. There is no headcount threshold, and the fines run from $1,000 to $20,000 per violation.

This page covers who is covered, what a compliant DC pay range looks like, the workplace notice most employers forget, the penalty ladder, and how to build a posted range you can defend. Build one below in about a minute.

Last updated July 2026 / General information, not legal advice

Pay band builder Sample data
02 · Market
03 · Seniority
04 · Company stage
No. / At a glance / 01

DC pay transparency, in one table

Obligation Who it covers What you must do Citation
Pay range in job listings Any employer with 1 or more DC employees Provide the minimum and maximum projected salary or hourly pay in all job listings and position descriptions advertised, internal ones included. § 32-1453.01(a)(1)
Healthcare benefits disclosure Same Tell the prospective employee that healthcare benefits exist, and what type, before the first interview. § 32-1453.01(a)(2)
No wage history screening Same Do not screen candidates on wage history and do not request it from a previous employer. § 32-1452(4) to (5)
Workplace notice Same Post a notice in a conspicuous place in the workplace informing employees of their rights under the Act. § 32-1453.02

Source: Wage Transparency Omnibus Amendment Act of 2023, DC Law 25-138, codified in DC Code Title 32, Chapter 14A, applicable from June 30, 2024. Summarized here for planning, not as legal advice.

No. / What it says / 02

The four points that decide compliance

01

One employee is the whole threshold

The Act defines an employer as anyone who employs at least one employee in the District. No 10-employee carve-out, no 25-employee carve-out. If you have a single person working in DC, every advertised listing you run for a DC role needs a range. Only the District and federal governments are excluded.

02

The range is a good faith projection

The posted range runs from the lowest to the highest salary or hourly pay the employer in good faith believes, at the time of the posting, it would pay for that role. A $60,000 to $220,000 span on a defined job is not a projection, it is an evasion, and it is the pattern an enforcement inquiry looks for first.

03

Benefits come up before the first interview

DC is one of the few jurisdictions that puts a clock on the benefits conversation. You must disclose the existence and type of healthcare benefits before the first interview, not at offer stage. In practice that means it belongs in the recruiter screen script or the posting itself.

04

There is a physical poster to hang

Section 32-1453.02 requires a conspicuous workplace notice explaining employee rights under the Act. It has nothing to do with recruiting, which is exactly why HR teams that fixed their job ads still fail this one. If you run a DC office, the notice goes up with your other labor postings.

One detail that catches multi-state employers: the disclosure duty reaches internal job postings as well as public ones. A role you circulate only to current staff still needs the projected minimum and maximum.

No. / Exposure / 03

What a DC violation actually costs

DC has the steepest posted-range fine ladder in the country. Where Massachusetts opens with a warning and Maryland opens with an order to comply, DC opens with a $1,000 fine and climbs fast. There is no cure period written into the statute.

Violation Civil fine Who acts
First $1,000 Mayor assesses the fine
Second $5,000 Mayor assesses the fine
Third and each one after $20,000 Mayor assesses the fine

Alongside the fines, the Attorney General has authority to investigate and to bring a civil action for restitution, injunctive or compensatory relief, and reasonable attorneys' fees. What DC does not have is a private right of action: the statute says nothing in the chapter creates one, so an applicant cannot sue you directly over a missing range. The pressure comes from the District, not from plaintiffs.

Fine amounts quoted from DC Code § 32-1455. Verified against the DC Council code library in July 2026.

No. / Method / 04

How to build a DC pay range you can defend

Good faith is an evidentiary standard, so a safe DC range is one with a paper trail: a market source, a date, and a written reason for every adjustment. The DC metro is also one of the most expensive labor markets in the country, which means a national band applied without a geographic adjustment usually posts low enough to look like bad faith.

  1. Step 01

    Benchmark against the DC metro, not the national average

    Public BLS OES data publishes P25, P50 and P75 by occupation for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro area. Start there. The gap between that and the national figure for the same occupation is often large enough to move a posted range by five figures.

  2. Step 02

    Set the internal band, then slice the posted range from it

    Build the band first, typically a 30 to 50 percent spread around the midpoint, then publish the slice you would genuinely pay a new hire at that level. Your internal band can be wider than the posted range. The posted range cannot be wider than your honest intent.

  3. Step 03

    Script the benefits line into the recruiter screen

    Because the healthcare disclosure has to happen before the first interview, the reliable fix is structural rather than individual. Put the benefits sentence in the posting template and in the opening of the screening call, so no single recruiter has to remember it.

  4. Step 04

    Refresh on a fixed cadence and keep the old versions

    A good faith projection made against three-year-old data stops being good faith. Review bands at least annually, more often for engineering and policy roles, and archive prior versions so you can show what you knew on the day you posted.

Do it now

Wagelist turns a role, a market, a seniority level and a company stage into a P25/P50/P75 band and a posting-ready range built on public U.S. BLS wage data, with the methodology attached. Use the builder at the top of this page, or read the full method behind salary bands and the company-wide grid they sit in, the salary structure.

See how posted ranges work
No. / Context / 05

How DC compares to Maryland and the other posting jurisdictions

Most employers in the DMV area hire across the District, Maryland and Virginia at once. Virginia has no posted-range law. Maryland and DC both do, they both start at effectively every employer, and they diverge sharply on what a first violation costs. If one job req can be filled from any of the three, the strictest rule you touch sets the floor.

Jurisdiction Employer threshold Benefits disclosure? First violation
Washington DC 1 or more DC employees Yes, healthcare, before the first interview $1,000 fine
Maryland All employers, no threshold Yes, general description of benefits Order to comply, no fine
Virginia No posted-range law Not applicable Not applicable
Massachusetts 25 or more MA employees No Warning
New Jersey 10 or more, counted nationwide Yes, general description of benefits Up to $300

The practical answer for a DMV employer is one national band per role and level with a documented geographic multiplier, so every posted range, DC or Maryland, comes out of the same structure and the same dated source. The full breakdown lives in our guide to pay transparency laws by state, and the mechanics of adjusting one band across markets are in geographic pay differentials.

No. / FAQ / 06

DC pay transparency questions

Does DC require salary ranges in job postings?

Yes. Since June 30, 2024, employers with at least one DC employee must provide the minimum and maximum projected salary or hourly pay in all job listings and position descriptions advertised. The range reflects what the employer in good faith believes it would pay at the time of the posting. The rule sits in DC Code section 32-1453.01.

How many employees does the DC pay transparency law apply to?

One. The Act defines an employer as any individual, firm, association or corporation employing at least one employee in the District, which makes DC broader than Massachusetts at 25 employees or New Jersey at 10. The District and federal governments are excluded from the definition.

What is the penalty for violating the DC pay transparency law?

DC Code section 32-1455 sets a civil fine of $1,000 for a first violation, $5,000 for a second, and $20,000 for each subsequent one. The Mayor assesses the fine and the Attorney General may investigate and sue for restitution, injunctive relief and attorneys' fees. There is no private right of action.

Can employers ask about salary history in DC?

No. DC employers may not screen candidates based on wage history and may not seek wage history from a previous employer. That covers application form questions, screening filters and reference calls. Price the role from your own band and market data rather than anchoring on the candidate's prior pay.

Do DC employers have to post a wage transparency notice?

Yes. Section 32-1453.02 requires a notice posted in a conspicuous place in the workplace telling employees their rights under the Act. It is a physical posting duty separate from the job listing rule, and it is the requirement DC employers miss most often because it sits outside the recruiting process.

When did the DC pay transparency law take effect?

June 30, 2024. The Wage Transparency Omnibus Amendment Act of 2023, DC Law 25-138, amended the earlier DC Wage Transparency Act to add the job listing pay range requirement, the healthcare benefits disclosure before the first interview, and the expanded wage history restrictions.

Does the DC law cover remote jobs?

The duty attaches to employers with employees in the District and to listings for roles that would be worked there. A remote role a DC resident could be hired into is the risky case, and the safe practice most DMV employers adopt is to post a range on any listing open to DC candidates rather than trying to draw the line per req.

Does the range requirement apply to internal postings?

Yes. The statute covers all job listings and position descriptions advertised, which includes roles circulated only to existing staff. If you run an internal mobility board or email openings to employees before going public, those listings need the projected minimum and maximum too.

No. / Related / 07

Keep going