City of Cleveland’s New Ordinance Requires Salary Range Posting and Bans Pay History Inquiries

Cleveland City Council unanimously approved legislation on April 28, 2025, requiring private employers in the City of Cleveland to include salary ranges in job postings and prohibit inquiries into a jobseeker’s pay history. Presented to the City Council on January 23, 2025, Ordinance No. 104-2025 is directed at curing wage inequality stemming from the Council’s findings that disparities in salary histories may perpetuate such inequality for women, people of color, and other marginalized groups. The City of Cleveland follows Cincinnati, Columbus, and Toledo in enacting similar legislation.

The Ordinance explicitly limits its purview to employers with 15 or more persons within the City of Cleveland. Significantly – this applies to private employers. This also includes job placement and other employment agencies when the agency operates on behalf of an employer within Cleveland. For employers meeting this definition, any formal notifications, advertisements, or other postings relating to the opportunity to apply for employment must include salary ranges or scales of the position for which the employer receives applications.

In addition to mandating the inclusion of salary ranges, the Ordinance includes several prohibitions for employers including:

1) inquiring about the salary history of an applicant,

2) using an applicant’s salary history as a basis for determining their salary proposal, and

3) refusing to hire or disfavoring a candidate based on their refusal to provide salary history.

However, applicants for internal transfers, voluntary and unprompted disclosures of salary history, and inadvertent receipt of salary history via background checks are exempted from the Ordinance.

Cleveland has tasked the Fair Employment Wage Board with making recommendations, receiving and considering complaints, and potentially assessing penalties for violations of the Ordinance. Civil penalties range from up to $1,000 for first, $2,500 for second, and $5,000 for third-time violations of the Ordinance. The Council-approved Ordinance awaits Mayor Justin Bibb’s approval by May 8, 2025. Barring unforeseen objections by the Mayor, the Ordinance is set to come into effect six months from his signing, providing until early November 2025 for Cleveland employers to plan and prepare for its requirements.

Please contact Jonathan M. Scandling, Ben F. Kerns, or any attorney of our Labor & Employment group if you have questions regarding Cleveland’s forthcoming Ordinance.