Gov. Polis signed labor reform into law under auspices of ensuring “equal pay,” but new reports show it’s having the reverse effect for many prospective remote workers.
And by “reverse effect,” we mean “no pay at all” as companies skip hiring Coloradans altogether.
The 2019 law requires employers starting this year to post good faith salary ranges when any new position opens up, including for remote workers in Colorado.
The idea was to give employees of all backgrounds more information about compensation to lower pay discrepancies.
In concept that sounds nice, until you realize Democrats actually put every prospective remote worker in Colorado at a competitive disadvantage.
Several employers including Nike, Johnson & Johnson, and Amazon competitor Digital Ocean are simply refusing to hire Coloradans for remote roles to get around the new requirement.
For firms, posting salary information can put companies at a competitive disadvantage by broadcasting employee compensation data to their competitors, especially in states without similar rules.
Business Insider reports Colorado’s law also severely restricts companies’ ability to negotiate and could open up firms to a host of lawsuits.
Associate professor at Wharton University and employment expert Matthew Bidwell told Insider that companies may want to avoid publicly posting their salaries because it limits their “ability to negotiate different salaries for different applicants.” […]
“Once the company has disclosed a salary, it will be difficult for them to pay much less than that salary to a successful applicant,” Bidwell said. “Even if that applicant had relatively less experience and would take the job for much less.”
In addition, companies may worry that making pay rates for different jobs public may cause discontent among workers who are paid less within the company, Bidwell said.
While Democrats will surely pout and shout about this entirely predictable outcome, there is absolutely nothing they can lawfully do if a company decides against locating a job within Colorado.
Moreover, this problem could not come at a worse time for Gov. Polis as Colorado’s high unemployment rate remains stagnant at 6.4 percent.
If major companies continue to boycott Colorado when it comes to hiring remote workers, then Democrats will have only themselves to blame as employers ship remote jobs out of the state.