Your Pay Range Is a Promise About Today: A Colorado Pay Transparency Audit

I recently had a coaching client interview for a role with a large national employer. The salary range in the posting looked strong. In conversation, they learned what the top of that range meant: it was what someone in the role could earn after several years with the company. It was not what the company was prepared to pay a new hire today.

That posting doesn't meet Colorado law. I don't think the company set out to mislead anyone, and my client isn't filing a complaint. I think the company misread the rule, and I suspect plenty of Colorado employers are making the same mistake. So here is the rule, and a checklist to audit your own postings and pay practices.

The Rule: Post What You Would Pay Now

Colorado's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act requires every job posting to include the pay or pay range for the job. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) is specific about what that range must be. In its guidance (INFO #9A), a compliant range spans "the lowest to highest the employer actually believes it may offer," judged by what the employer "genuinely believed it would be willing to pay" when the job was posted.

CDLE's own example matches my client's experience. An employer can't post a $70,000–$100,000 range for a junior accountant because it pays senior accountants $100,000. The range describes the job you're hiring for today, not the career path that follows it.

The same guidance rules out ranges with no top or bottom. "$30,000 and up" and "up to $60,000" both fail.

Who This Covers

The law applies to any employer with at least one employee in Colorado. It covers:

Jobs located in Colorado.
Remote jobs that could be performed from Colorado. A posting that says "Colorado applicants will not be considered" is still covered.
Postings you make yourself and postings you pay or direct a recruiter or job board to make.

The pay and benefits disclosures don't apply to jobs performed entirely outside Colorado. You still have to tell your Colorado employees about those openings, unless you are an out-of-state employer with fewer than 15 Colorado employees, all remote. Through July 1, 2029, those employers only have to share remote openings.

What It Costs to Get Wrong

Fines run $500 to $10,000 per violation, and each job posted out of compliance counts as a separate violation. Anyone who sees a violation, including applicants who never worked for you, can file a complaint within one year of learning about it. According to CDLE data reported in mid-2026, the state has received more than 2,800 transparency complaints and issued citations with fines totaling more than $800,000. One health care employer was cited for $552,000, later reduced to $298,000.

CDLE often sends a compliance letter first and gives the employer a chance to fix the problem. Don't count on that. Fix it first.

The Audit Checklist

Pull every open Colorado-covered posting, your internal job announcements, and your offer templates. Work through each section below.

Download the printable checklist (PDF) to work through with your hiring managers and keep a record of your review.

1. The Pay Range

[ ] Every posting lists a specific rate or a range with both a minimum and a maximum.
[ ] No posting uses "up to," "starting at," or "and up," and none substitutes "DOE" or "competitive" for an actual range.
[ ] The bottom of the range is a number you would offer today to a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications.
[ ] The top of the range is a number you would offer today to the strongest candidate for this job, not a number an incumbent reaches after years of raises.
[ ] If one posting covers multiple levels (junior and senior), the range reflects what you would pay across those levels, or you split them into separate postings.
[ ] If pay varies by location within Colorado, the posting gives applicants enough information to estimate their own pay.
[ ] Tipped roles state the base wage separately from expected tips.
[ ] Someone in HR or compensation approves the range before the posting goes live, and you keep a record of how you set it.

Test your range: Ask the hiring manager two questions. "Would you sign an offer at the bottom of this range today?" and "Would you sign one at the top, today, for the right candidate?" If the answer to either is no, the range is wrong.

2. Other Compensation and Benefits

[ ] The posting describes bonuses, commissions, equity, tips, and other compensation in general terms.
[ ] The posting describes all benefits: health coverage, retirement, paid time off, and other tax-reportable benefits.
[ ] No benefit list ends in "etc." or "and more." CDLE treats open-ended lists as non-compliant.
[ ] Benefits descriptions match what the role is eligible for. Part-time and seasonal roles often differ.

3. Application Deadline and Instructions

[ ] Each posting states a good-faith application deadline, or states that applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.
[ ] "Ongoing basis" appears only on roles you recruit for continuously, such as high-volume hourly roles.
[ ] No posting says "open until filled." CDLE has said that phrase does not comply.
[ ] The posting date is visible, so a deadline stated in days can be calculated.
[ ] If you extend a deadline, you update the posting promptly.
[ ] You remove postings promptly once the role is filled.
[ ] Each posting explains how to apply.

4. Internal Notice of Job Opportunities

Colorado requires more than an external ad. Before you make a selection decision, you must make reasonable efforts to tell all Colorado employees about each job opportunity on the same calendar day.

[ ] Every vacancy you are considering candidates for, including roles you plan to fill internally without an external ad, gets an internal notice.
[ ] The notice goes to all Colorado employees, not only the ones you think are qualified or interested.
[ ] The notice includes the same pay, benefits, deadline, and how-to-apply information as an external posting.
[ ] Remote, field, and frontline employees can access the notice. A bulletin board alone doesn't reach everyone.
[ ] If you already have a candidate in mind, you still post the notice in time for others to apply.
[ ] When you rely on an exception (an acting role of nine months or less, a confidential replacement, or a career development promotion), you document why it applies.

5. Notice After You Fill the Role

[ ] Within 30 days after the selected candidate starts, you notify the employees that person will work with regularly.
[ ] The notice includes the person's name, new title, former title (for internal candidates), and how employees can express interest in similar roles in the future.
[ ] If the person asks in writing to withhold their name or prior title for health or safety reasons, you still announce that the position is filled.

6. Career Progression

[ ] If you have automatic or objective promotion paths (for example, Level I to Level II after 12 months with no discipline), you give eligible employees the requirements and the pay, benefits, and duties of each level.
[ ] Promotions that depend on a manager's discretion are treated as job opportunities and posted, not labeled "career progression."

7. Pay Practices Beyond the Posting

[ ] Applications, recruiter scripts, and interview guides do not ask for current or past pay.
[ ] No one sets an offer based on a candidate's pay history, even if the candidate volunteers it.
[ ] Handbooks, offer letters, and confidentiality agreements do not prohibit employees from discussing their pay.
[ ] Managers know they cannot retaliate against an employee for discussing pay or raising a pay concern.
[ ] Every pay difference between employees doing substantially similar work traces to a factor the law allows: seniority, merit, quantity or quality of production, geographic location, education, training, or experience related to the work, or travel that is a regular and necessary part of the job. The factor has to be applied reasonably and account for the entire difference.
[ ] You keep each Colorado employee's job description and compensation history, including changes, for their employment plus two years.
[ ] You have completed a thorough pay equity audit within the last two years, aimed at finding and fixing unlawful pay gaps. If a pay claim is filed, a court can consider that audit as evidence of good faith.

Where Employers Go Wrong

After the "career ceiling" range, these are the problems I see most:

One range for every level. A single posting for "Engineer" with a range that runs from new graduate to principal.
Remote postings that exclude Colorado. The exclusion doesn't remove the obligation.
"Open until filled." It is the default setting in many applicant tracking systems. Change the template.
Internal promotions with no posting. A manager taps someone for a role, and no one else hears about it until the announcement.
No post-selection notice. The team finds out from a calendar invite.

What to Do This Week

Pull your open Colorado-covered postings and run section 1 on each one. Fix the ranges first. They are the most visible problem and the easiest for an applicant to report. Then update your ATS and posting templates so the deadline, benefits, and how-to-apply fields can't be skipped. Schedule the internal notice and pay practices review for this quarter.

Download the Colorado Pay Transparency Audit Checklist (PDF)

If you want a second set of eyes on your postings or a pay equity review, Your HR Pro can help.

This post is general information, not legal advice. Check CDLE's current guidance and have employment counsel review your postings and pay practices.