Winners unclear as pay transparency arrives in Minnesota

Pay transparency in MN: What's the impact?

Anyone applying for a job in Minnesota this year should have a pretty good idea of how much the job pays.

(FOX 9) - Anyone applying for a job in Minnesota this year should have a pretty good idea of how much the job pays.

Pay transparency arrives

Minnesota moves:

Employers have to list a salary range on job postings because of a new pay transparency law.

At least four other states beat Minnesota to the punch, and data from those states show some clear trends.

Transparency is way up, and not just in states where laws require it.

Economists at the Minneapolis Fed are trying to figure out exactly why and whether the laws are benefiting you.

Scroll the employment website Indeed and you’ll see the next assistant manager at the Cottage Grove Domino’s will earn up to $19.50 an hour and the next Walmart manager trainee in Red Wing will make between $65,000 and $80,000 a year.

Pay transparency arrived in Minnesota this year, but what’s not transparent yet is what impact the law will have.

"These laws are pretty new in the United States," said Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis economist Ayushi Narayan.

Spreading clarity

Transparency rising:

Economists at the Minneapolis Fed found a huge increase in transparency in four states where it’s been mandated by law for up to four years now.

But it’s also significantly up in states without mandates and they’re not sure why.

Narayan says the data she’s collected show it’s not necessarily driven by occupational patterns, the shrinking gender pay gap, or transparency laws in other states.

And neither high nor low unemployment rates seem to impact transparency.

"There's been a pretty steady rise despite big fluctuations in the unemployment rate between 2019 and 2024," Narayan said.

Increasing salaries

Early hope:

She’s curious about research in other states showing slightly improved salaries follow transparency laws.

But the bottom line is, today, we know salaries for more jobs, but it’ll be a while before we know what else is changing.

"It would be really cool to see ‘are the wages increasing? Which employers are complying and which ones aren't, and what does that mean for who we think is benefiting from the increases in pay transparency?’," said Narayan.