Score a posting batch before it goes live

A Seattle agency recruiter holding three open requisitions with no pay range printed on any of them is carrying $360,000 of statutory exposure, not the $15,000 almost everyone guesses. The gap is a unit error, and it is the most expensive thing people get wrong about US pay transparency law.

Washington's Equal Pay and Opportunities Act, RCW 49.58.110, has been in force since 2023-01-01 and sets statutory damages at $5,000 per affected applicant. Per applicant. Three postings drawing 24 applicants each is 72 affected people, and 72 times $5,000 is $360,000. Every other state prices the same failure per posting, so arithmetic that works in New Jersey is off by a factor of twenty-four in Washington. That per-applicant unit, combined with a class mechanism, produced the wave of Washington posting suits.

The second thing people get wrong is the calendar. Virginia's posting duty is new: HB 1659 and SB 370 took effect 2026-07-01, and they cover every private employer with no employee-count floor at all. Maine's LD 1849 followed on 2026-07-29 for employers with ten or more people.Ask a general-purpose chatbot whether Virginia requires a wage range in a job ad and you are asking a model whose training text predates both dates; it will tell you no. An ad published in Virginia this November is covered; the identical ad dated 2026-06-15 was not.

The third thing is the threshold. Colorado, Virginia and Maryland reach every private employer. Washington, California and Illinois start at fifteen; New Jersey at ten, Massachusetts at twenty-five, New York City at four. A forty-person company is covered in seven of those nine jurisdictions.

Then the rates, which share no shape at all. Virginia runs $1,000 for a first violation and up to $5,000 for each one after. New Jersey is $300 then $600. California's Labor Code 432.3 runs from $100 to $10,000 per violation, with the SB 642 amendments live since 2026-01-01. Colorado is $500 to $10,000 and Illinois reaches $10,000 for a repeat offender. Massachusetts gives a written warning first, then up to $25,000 per violation. Maryland warns, then charges $300 per affected applicant. New York City is unusual in the other direction: it caps the entire cumulative violation at $250,000 no matter how many ads are involved.

Two postings in Massachusetts after a prior finding is $50,000. Five postings in Virginia at an eight-person company is $5,000, because Virginia has no size floor; the same five in Massachusetts is zero, because Massachusetts stops at twenty-five. Nothing here generalises.

Pay Range Posting Check 2026 is a browser extension and a web page that run the same calculation. You pick the jurisdiction, the go-live date, your headcount, how many postings are missing a range, and how many applicants each will draw. It answers whether that state covers an employer your size, which statute applies and when it started, what one violation costs and in what unit, and the dollar exposure across the batch. If the go-live date falls before the statute's start date, it scores zero rather than inventing a penalty.

All of that is free. Every jurisdiction, unlimited batches, no key, no watermark, no run limit, in the popup and on the web page. The $60 licence sits on a different axis entirely: it exports the scored batch as a .csv audit register you own and can hand to counsel, and it sets reminders 30, 14 and 1 day ahead of the go-live date you entered. Employment counsel bills roughly $350 to $500 an hour to review a multi-state posting template, and that review goes stale the next time a legislature moves.