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Companies that are avoiding hiring in Colorado

coloradoexcluded.com

21–30 of 207 posts

Re: Companies that are avoiding hiring in Colorado

#21
post #17
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the "Why does this matter" link on the first page ( https://www.coloradoexcluded.com/about ): "Companies are excluding Colorado from their remote employment opportunities in order to avoid sharing the salary range of their open positions. In May of 2019 SB19-085, titled the Equal Pay For Equal Work Act, was signed into law in Colorado. It's a fairly short read if you're not familiar with it, but its main goal is…

I think many of these companies are simply too lazy to have their compliance department review listings, and have chosen to pull them instead. Which still reflects just as negatively on them, but isn't quite the same. This law is absolutely a great step forward, but I've seen plenty of roles listing pay ranges like "Minimum - $30,200/annual Maximum - $289,200/annual," so I struggle to believe that the actual informat…

The max is helpful too as I keep running into companies that want to pay 60K or 70K.

Re: Companies that are avoiding hiring in Colorado

#22

Doesn’t California have a similar pay transparency law? As far as I can tell, it doesn’t work, because it’s still rare to see a salary range up front.

To my knowledge it only requires sharing the salary range with people once they have an offer in hand, if that person asks for it. It does not require making that range publicly available to anyone seeing the job listing.

Re: Companies that are avoiding hiring in Colorado

#23
It's very simple. It's to a company's benefit to miss twenty qualified applicants than to hire a single unqualified one. It's to a company's benefit to miss twenty qualified applicants than to reveal their salary range during negotiation to a single one. It's to a company's benefit to lose twenty qualified employees than to promote anyone from within. You can justify just about any industry practice by saying a dramatic number while wearing a smart expression on your face.

Re: Companies that are avoiding hiring in Colorado

#24

Doesn’t California have a similar pay transparency law? As far as I can tell, it doesn’t work, because it’s still rare to see a salary range up front.

Colorado's is the first that requires the range to be up front in job listings.

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/new-wage-range-disclosu...

>California law requires employers to provide job applicants with the salary or hourly wage ranges for positions upon the applicant’s reasonable request, provided the applicant has completed an initial interview with the employer.

Re: Companies that are avoiding hiring in Colorado

#26
post #17
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the "Why does this matter" link on the first page ( https://www.coloradoexcluded.com/about ): "Companies are excluding Colorado from their remote employment opportunities in order to avoid sharing the salary range of their open positions. In May of 2019 SB19-085, titled the Equal Pay For Equal Work Act, was signed into law in Colorado. It's a fairly short read if you're not familiar with it, but its main goal is…

I think many of these companies are simply too lazy to have their compliance department review listings, and have chosen to pull them instead. Which still reflects just as negatively on them, but isn't quite the same. This law is absolutely a great step forward, but I've seen plenty of roles listing pay ranges like "Minimum - $30,200/annual Maximum - $289,200/annual," so I struggle to believe that the actual informat…

My guess is it has less to do with laziness and more to do with the financial cost of opening yourself up to lawsuits if you can't prove the wage difference isn't due to sexual discrimination.

While I like the idea of forcing these companies to list salary on job posts I'm not sure I agree with the reason the bill was put in place.

If I were a company I'd avoid CO as well. Plenty of other places to pick up employees.

Re: Companies that are avoiding hiring in Colorado

#27

This is a predictable consequence of a shortsighted legal requirement. How many people will be deprived of work opportunities because of this law? How many jobs will Colorado lose over the next decade or more until the legislature realizes what they've done?

Price transparency is a basic requirement of efficient markets.

Re: Companies that are avoiding hiring in Colorado

#28

Businesses are not truly desperate for labor until they start publicly advertising minimum pay rates and quality of life at work. A few restaurants around me have started listing their starting pay, plus sign on bonuses, so they are finally feeling the heat.

I have always wondered whether I was in the minority in caring a lot about these, as companies tend to talk about the "challenges" and "mission", and while I enjoy those, I also chose this field in part because I want a comfortable life.

I enjoy CS, don't get me wrong, but I also enjoy history.

Re: Companies that are avoiding hiring in Colorado

#29
The Colorado law to me strikes me as a pretty huge government overreach. I fully believe in minimum wage laws, and that feels like an appropriate regulation to me, but this just feels like it's almost attacking these companies, interfering with their hiring processes, and I fully see why companies would rather not bother hiring in what boils down to 1 mid-sized metro area than deal with the consequences.

Re: Companies that are avoiding hiring in Colorado

#30

Businesses are not truly desperate for labor until they start publicly advertising minimum pay rates and quality of life at work. A few restaurants around me have started listing their starting pay, plus sign on bonuses, so they are finally feeling the heat.

Or it could be that some businesses are desperate for labor and others aren't.
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