On June 5, 2023, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed into law the Ensure Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (EEPEWA), which amended and expanded the job-posting and notice requirements of the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (EPEWA), effective January 1, 2024.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) has adopted the final rules interpreting and implementing the EEPEWA. The following summary applies to the adopted rules to allow employers to make preparations as quickly as possible for 2024.
The EEPEWA divides notice and posting requirements into three categories: job opportunity notices (internal and external job postings), post-selection notices (internal notices), and career progression notices (internal notices).
The EEPEWA requires all job postings – external and the internal job opportunity notice – to include each of the following:
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The hourly rate or salary compensation (or range thereof) that the employer is offering for the position
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A general description of any bonuses, commissions, or other forms of compensation that are being offered for the job
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A general description of all employment benefits the employer is offering for the position
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The deadline for application
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How to apply for the job opportunity
The requirements are a significant expansion of the original EPWA, which required employers only to post “promotional opportunities” internally. The EEPEWA defines a “job posting” as “a current or anticipated vacancy for which the employer is considering a candidate or candidates or interviewing a candidate or candidates or that the employer externally posts.” Thus, with a new exception below, this includes virtually every job posting. Employers must make reasonable efforts to post the internal job opportunity notice on the same calendar day the job is posted externally.
Organizations located outside of Colorado with fewer than 15 remote Colorado-based employees will now only be required to provide notice of remote job opportunities rather than all company-wide promotional opportunities, through July 1, 2029.
In addition, the posting exception for acting, interim, or temporary positions is now defined as up to nine months, with qualifications for partial completion and previously held to be temporarily filled.
The internal career progression notice is a new requirement. The EEPEWA now excludes “career development and progression” from the positions for which job posting is required. But the price of this exclusion is that employers must now post for all positions with career progression a “career progression notice” disclosing and making available to all eligible employees the position’s “terms of compensation, benefits, full-time or part-time status, duties, and access to further advancement.”
And the internal post-selection notice is a new requirement. Once a candidate is selected to fill a posted job, the employer must notify employees who will supervise the new or promoted employee and/or will collaborate or communicate with the selected employee at least monthly. The successful candidate does have a right to request a non-notification for privacy reasons. The notification should include each of the following:
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The name of the candidate selected for the job opportunity
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The selected candidate’s former job title if selected while already employed by the employer
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The selected candidate’s new job title
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Information on how employees may demonstrate interest in similar job opportunities in the future, including identifying individuals or departments to whom the employees can express interest in similar job opportunities.
However, an employer shall not disclose in the post-selection notice a selected candidate’s name and/or prior job title if any law or regulations prohibits doing so or if the selected candidate informs the employer in writing of the candidate's own volition that they believe disclosure of either (or both) of those items would put their health or safety at risk.
The EEPEWA now requires the CDLE to establish the procedure to mediate wage complaints no later than July 1, 2024. To date, the CDLE has not proposed rules to implement this process.
In addition, the EEPEWA makes the following changes to Part I of the EPEWA:
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The recovery period for back pay for any employee who claims pay discrimination has been extended from three to six years.
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Existing legislation authorizes the director of Labor Standards and Statistics in the CDLE to create and administer processes to accept and mediate pay discrimination complaints. Under the amended law, this will now be a directive that must be implemented on or before July 1, 2024. The director must also promulgate enforcement rules.