DENVER — While the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment is beginning to fine businesses for failing to comply with a 2019 law requiring Colorado employers to publish the salary of all advertised job listings, open positions in the Governor’s office are not following the very law Jared Polis signed.
An opening in the Governor’s Office of Economic Development & International Trade (OEDIT) was posted on Linkedin Tuesday listing all the details for employment, but failed to list the salary, a requirement other private businesses are now being fined for.
Senate Bill 19-085, which Polis signed into law on May 22, 2019 and went into effect Jan. 1, 2021 explicitly states that “An employer shall disclose the hourly or salary compensation, or a range of the hourly or salary compensation, and a general description of all of the benefits and other compensation to be offered to the hired applicant.”
The state made it easy to file a complaint on any business that does not comply by filling out an online form.
However, although the OEDIT notice does outline a laundry list of benefits from annual and sick leave, paid holidays, and medical plan options to options for different types of retirement plans, state-paid short term disability plans and RTD passes, it does not give a salary range on the listing for a legislative affairs director.
According to the Colorado Sun, the very same failure of the law cost Monigle Associates in Denver $8,000 in fines.
“Some listings shared no wages. Others didn’t have the top amount, only a + sign, as in “Salary Range: $70,000 – 95,000+.” And some openings offered “full benefits” but no description as to what those benefits were. All were violations,” the Sun article reads.
Monigle was the first company to be fined.
But according to the Sun article, while over the first year the labor department warned hundreds of employers that wages mut be displayed, they were more lenient as the law went into effect. The state is now issuing fines.
According to the Sun:
- 129 compliance assistance letters for remote job violations
- 122 opportunity to cure letters, giving employers an opportunity to cure ostensible violations, sent in response to a complaint of any violation type (not limited to remote jobs)
- 3 employers have been fined
- Monigle, $8,000 (paid)
- SpotOn Transact LLC, $34,500 (not yet due)
- Advanced Circuits Inc., $2,000 (waived after coming into compliance)
The governor’s spokesperson Conor Cahill did not return a request for comment on the Governor’s office failure to comply with the new law. Likewise, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment did not answer its phone on multiple attempts for comment on whether the governor’s office has been warned or if they intend to fine state agencies who do not comply.
