Remote Employers Say ‘Coloradans Need Not Apply’ — And It’s Messed Up
According to The Wall Street Journal, major companies don't want to hire Coloradans to work remotely, and it's because of a new law in Colorado: Equal Pay for Equal Work Act.
The law, which went into effect in January of 2021, requires job postings to disclose the salary of the position. The reasoning is that the transparency about compensation upfront will 'narrow gender wage gaps and provide greater pay transparency for employees,' The Wall Street Journal said.
And, some employers simply don't want to provide that information. If you think that's shady, sexism usually is shady. Some employers, like Johnson & Johnson, have straight up said in their job postings that its position is flexible and can be done remotely — unless you live in Colorado.
Vice also reported that along with Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Unite Us, Stride K12, Concentrix, Contrax, and Drizly have also said that their positions can be performed remotely anywhere, with the 'exception of Colorado.'
According to U.S. Census data, the median income for a female in Colorado is $29,000, and for a male, it's $43,000. Pew Research Center reported that just last year in the U.S., 'women earned 84 percent of what men earned.'
'Based on this estimate, it would take an extra 42 days of work for women to earn what men did in 2020,' Pew Research Center said.
Colorado's new law is intended to close that gap, but now, it looks like Coloradans are just told not to apply for remote jobs based out of state.