By Julie Mackaman

A Question of Transparency

Let’s say you’re looking for work and are excited about a post for a job opening that’s right up your alley. You meet the qualifications and are eager to apply. But something really, really important is missing in the job description: How much does it pay? You find yourself wondering why the employer isn’t disclosing the pay. And if you land the job, whether you’ll be paid on the same scale as any other successful applicant and as your future co-workers…

Last month the state legislature passed a bipartisan pay transparency bill that will require Vermont’s employers to include the pay, or pay range, in their job listings. After wending its way through House and Senate committees, H. 704 was met on the homestretch with a flurry of activity as legislators and advocates (among them our friends at the Vermont Commission on Women) scrambled to forge compromise language that would help the Senate pass the bill that the House had approved. Even as our AAUW Bennington Branch was hastily hammering out a letter of support, we got word that the Senate had just voted to pass the amended bill. With a governor’s veto unlikely, it will go into effect on July 1, 2025.

This is a big deal.

In the journey to achieve gender pay equity, the landmark 1963 Equal Pay Act for protecting against wage discrimination based on sex was a waystation, not a destination. The new Vermont bill brings our state one step closer to realizing the promise embedded in the Equal Pay Act over half a century ago. It follows in the footsteps of previous legislative actions taken by our state to move ever closer to pay equity, among them prohibiting employers from retaliating against workers who discuss their salaries and from requiring job applicants to disclose their salary history.

So let’s take a victory lap and set aside a moment to appreciate Vermont’s progress toward shrinking the gender pay gap. After all, according to AAUW’s report, “The Simple Truth About the Gender Wage Gap in the States,”  as of 2020 Vermont ranked #1 in the country in terms of closing the gap, with Vermont’s working women earning 91 cents for every dollar paid to men.

The road is long, the work continues, but step by step, we’ll get there.