Cleveland’s pay transparency ordinance is set to mark its first anniversary on Oct. 27, with supporters describing early compliance work as a success while acknowledging limits in who the city can regulate.
The law requires employers with at least 15 workers to list salary ranges in job postings and prohibits them from asking applicants about salary history. At an Oct. 13 event, activists searched job listings and filed 34 complaints by the end, according to Grace Heffernan of the Northeast Ohio Worker Center. Heffernan said the postings involved both large and small companies.
The ordinance does not apply to county and state public employers because Cleveland lacks jurisdiction over them. As a result, Cleveland State University and the MetroHealth System are not covered. Heffernan said MetroHealth stood out during the event as a hospital not posting ranges; a spokesman told Signal Cleveland the hospital had nothing to add. FirstEnergy accounted for about one-third of the complaints filed that day, Heffernan said; the company had not commented when the article was published.
Elfreda “Alfie” Walter, program manager to the Fair Employment Wage Board, said 69 pay transparency complaints had been filed since the city portal went live last November. Forty-four were substantiated, more than half were resolved, and about one-third could not be reviewed because they involved government employers outside city jurisdiction, mostly MetroHealth and Cleveland State. No case has reached fines, which can be up to $5,000, Walter said.
Wage board member Tanmay Shah said a Cuyahoga County law is a high priority for the board. County President Dale Miller wrote that the county should seriously consider similar countywide legislation.