Not knowing what your coworker earns has long been used to keep wages low, suppress negotiation, and perpetuate pay discrimination based on gender, race, and national origin. California decided years ago that this informational imbalance was not acceptable — and since 2023, state law has required employers to disclose salary ranges in job postings and provide pay scale information to employees who ask for it. In 2026, those requirements were strengthened again.

If you are a California worker who has never seen the pay range for your own position, never asked what the company budgeted for your role, or never had the information you needed to negotiate a raise or identify wage discrimination, the law is now on your side. California's pay transparency framework — anchored by Senate Bill 1162 (effective January 1, 2023) and now refined by Senate Bill 642, the Pay Equity Enforcement Act (effective January 1, 2026) — gives you specific, enforceable rights to salary information that many employers still do not voluntarily disclose.

The Foundation: What SB 1162 Requires

Senate Bill 1162, signed by Governor Newsom on September 27, 2022, and effective January 1, 2023, significantly expanded California's existing pay transparency framework under Labor Code Section 432.3. The law operates on two levels depending on employer size.^[1]

For employers with 15 or more employees, every job posting — including postings made through third-party platforms — must include the salary or hourly wage range the employer reasonably expects to pay for the position. This is not optional. If a posting appears on LinkedIn, Indeed, or any other platform and the employer has 15 or more employees with at least one in California, the pay range must be there.^[2]

For all employers regardless of size, two additional rights apply. First, current employees may request the pay scale for the position they currently hold, and the employer must provide it. Second, job applicants may request the pay scale for the position they are interviewing for after their initial interview, and the employer must provide that as well. An employer with two employees still has to give you the range for your own role if you ask.^[3]

SB 1162 also expanded the salary history prohibition already in California law under AB 168. Employers cannot ask about your prior salary history, cannot require you to disclose it, and cannot use it to determine what to offer you even if you volunteer the information. The only exception is if you voluntarily and without prompting offer your salary history.^[4]

Violations of the pay scale posting requirement carry civil penalties of no less than $100 and no more than $10,000 per violation.^[5]

What SB 642 Changed in 2026

Senate Bill 642, the Pay Equity Enforcement Act, was signed by Governor Newsom on October 8, 2025, and took effect January 1, 2026. It refines and strengthens the SB 1162 framework in four significant ways that directly affect workers' rights.^[6]

The pay scale definition is now more precise. Under SB 1162, employers could post very wide ranges — think $50,000 to $150,000 for a single mid-level role — that gave applicants no useful information. SB 642 amends the definition of "pay scale" in Labor Code Section 432.3 to require a good faith estimate of the salary or hourly wage range an employer reasonably expects to pay upon hire. Posting a range that covers the entire salary band for the department rather than what the employer actually intends to pay for this specific opening is now legally suspect.^[7]

Total compensation now counts in equal pay claims. Under the prior law, pay equity analysis looked primarily at salary and wages. SB 642 expands the definition of "wages" under California's Equal Pay Act (Labor Code Section 1197.5) to include all forms of compensation — bonuses, equity grants, stock options, benefits, allowances, and expense reimbursements. If two employees doing substantially similar work receive identical salaries but different equity packages, the equity gap is now part of the equal pay analysis.^[8]

The statute of limitations for equal pay claims was extended. Workers now have three years from the last discriminatory pay act to file an equal pay claim, up from the prior two-year period. For willful violations, the period extends to four years. The continuing violation doctrine also applies, meaning each paycheck issued at a discriminatory rate is a new violation that restarts the clock.^[9]

The equal pay law now covers all genders. SB 642 updated the statutory language to prohibit paying employees of "another" sex a lower wage rate for substantially similar work, rather than the prior "opposite" sex language. This makes the equal pay protections explicitly applicable to nonbinary and gender-nonconforming workers.^[6]

How to Use These Laws to Identify Pay Discrimination

Pay transparency laws are not just about knowing what a job pays before you apply. They are tools for identifying whether you are being paid fairly compared to what you are worth and to what your employer is paying others doing the same work.

If you are a current employee, start by requesting the pay scale for your current position in writing. Your employer is legally required to provide it. Compare that range to your current compensation. If you are below the midpoint or at the bottom of the range with significant tenure, that is a negotiating point and potentially evidence of pay suppression. If you are in a protected class and your employer cannot explain the gap with objective, nondiscriminatory factors, you may have an equal pay claim under Labor Code Section 1197.5.^[10]

The pay data reports filed annually by employers with 100 or more employees also create a paper trail. The California Civil Rights Department uses these reports to identify industries and companies with significant pay gaps across protected groups. The 2025 pay data report was due May 2026. If you suspect a systemic pay disparity at your employer, an attorney can use the publicly available reporting data to add context to your individual claim.^[11]

Retaliation is also explicitly prohibited. Your employer cannot punish you, demote you, cut your hours, or otherwise take adverse action against you for requesting pay scale information, discussing your salary with coworkers, or asserting your rights under California's pay equity laws. The anti-retaliation protection applies to employees of all employers regardless of size.^[3]

The Bottom Line

California's pay transparency laws exist because pay secrecy benefits employers, not workers. They allow discriminatory pay gaps to persist undetected, prevent employees from negotiating from a position of equal information, and let the same inequities that have depressed women's and minority workers' wages for generations continue unchallenged. SB 1162 and SB 642 shift that balance.

If your employer has not told you the pay range for your own position, they may be in violation of California law. If you have discovered that coworkers doing substantially similar work are paid more than you without a legitimate, nondiscriminatory explanation — especially if the difference tracks a protected characteristic — you may have an equal pay claim that under SB 642 now covers the full picture of what both of you are being paid, not just the base salary. At Smith Reback Law, we represent California workers pursuing pay equity and pay transparency violations. Your consultation is completely confidential and costs nothing.