Published: 7 May 2025 | by Emily Scace, Brightmine Senior Legal Editor
Cleveland, Ohio, is the latest city to join the pay transparency trend. A new ordinance taking effect in October will require many city employers to include a salary range in job postings.
The ordinance applies to businesses that employ 15 or more employees within the City of Cleveland, except for certain public-sector employers. Covered employers must comply by October 27, 2025.
Under the ordinance, any notice, advertisement or other formal posting that offers the opportunity to apply for a job must contain a pay range.
The new law also restricts salary history inquiries. Employers may not:
- Inquire about a job applicant’s salary history;
- Screen an applicant based on their current or prior salary;
- Rely solely on a job applicant’s salary history in deciding whether to hire the applicant or determining their salary; or
- Refuse to hire or otherwise retaliate against an applicant for not disclosing their salary history.
Alleged violations of the ordinance will be evaluated by the Fair Employment Wage Board, which will investigate and provide notice to the employer. Employers will have a 90-day window to correct deficiencies. If violations are not remedied, an employer may face civil penalties up to:
- $1,000 for an employer with no previous violations within the past five years;
- $2,500 for an employer with one previous violation within the past five years; and
- $5,000 for an employer with two or more previous violations within the past five years.
Although a few other Ohio cities have enacted pay transparency and salary history ordinances, Cleveland’s law is the only one to require a pay range in job postings. Laws in Toledo and Cincinnati require employers to provide a pay scale upon request to an applicant who has received a conditional job offer.
Fourteen states and the District of Columbia, along with several localities, have enacted pay transparency laws, and proposed laws are currently pending in at least a dozen states.
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About the author
Emily Scace, JD
Senior Legal Editor, Brightmine
Emily Scace has more than a decade of experience in legal publishing. As a member of the Brightmine editorial team, she covers topics including employment discrimination and harassment, pay equity, pay transparency and recruiting and hiring.
Emily holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in English and psychology from Northwestern University. Prior to joining Brightmine, she was a senior content specialist at Simplify Compliance. In that role, she covered a variety of workplace health and safety topics, was the editor of the OSHA Compliance Advisor newsletter, and frequently delivered webinars on key issues in workplace safety.