in our Spotlight on Business Report tonight New Jersey is on the brink of a key change that could affect how you search for a job lawmakers this week considered a bill that will require salary information on job postings if it passes New Jersey will be just the sixth state to mandate those salary ranges are available before you apply salary range disclosures are already mandated in nearby New York and Connecticut but some business groups worry the attempt at more transparency could backfire Melissa Rose Cooper reports I actually think it's a big waste of time for both uh job Seekers and uh businesses to go through you know the application process the interview process maybe a second interview only to get to a point where you discuss salary and find out that your miles apart in your expectations so assemblyman Paul Moriarty is sponsoring a bill that would require New Jersey employers to disclose salary ranges on job postings for businesses with five or more employees it doesn't have to be the exact salary it could be we're willing to pay between forty and eighty thousand dollars forty thousand might be the range for someone that just got out of school that needs some seasoning and 80 000 might be what you'll pay if you can find a qualified candidate with a lot of experience I think that's fair the measure would also require businesses to include what promotional opportunities are associated with the job listing if the bill becomes law New Jersey will become the sixth state in the country to mandate page transparency following in the nearby footsteps of New York and Connecticut we understand that this is a national Trend and that the legislature wants to try to address this issue as a pay Equity standard we're just recommending that we proceed with caution right now just because we see that in a lot of other states sometimes the pay range is very uh pretty widely for various reasons Alexis Bailey vice president of government Affairs for the New Jersey business and industry Association believes the legislature should see how things pan out in other states where salary transparency is already law before trying to pass the measure in New Jersey she's concerned the Mandate could lead to unintended issues on the private right of action provision that really opens up employers to litigation on any aggrieved person that if they're seeing a job application that doesn't properly list the salary range now they can file a lawsuit against employers which we think is you know a little bit of an overreach there's also concerns when it comes to trying to close the gender pay Gap according to the Pew research Center women in the U.S make about 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man it's even worse for women of color with black women earning 70 percent as much as white men and Hispanic women earning 65 percent as much in fact a recent report from the Rutgers Center for Women and work found Latinas in New Jersey faced the second highest wage Gap in the country Jana Rogers is worried the Mandate won't address this issue one of the main intentions which I being at the Center for Women and work really a champion is that they close the gender pay Gap and that they also close racial pay gaps and the research is showing that this is happening which is a good thing but it's not happening because the wages of women and underrepresented groups are rising it's because the wages at the top are falling because of these a transparency laws the Assembly labor committee held a hearing yesterday to discuss arguments over the transparency mandates assemblywoman Brittany Timberlake is sponsoring a similar bill that would apply to companies with 10 or more employees lawmakers and members of the business Community say they're looking forward to working with each other to find an agreeable solution for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper support for the business report provided by the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey working for economic Prosperity by uniting business and Community leaders for 150 years membership and event information online at chambersnj.com [Music]