Virginia's new pay transparency law took effect July 1, 2026, requiring employers to publish salary ranges in job postings and barring them from asking candidates about past pay. It is the largest state by population to adopt a posting-range mandate so far, and it arrives inside a pipeline that also includes Maine, whose law takes effect July 29, and Delaware, whose follows in September 2027. For payroll, HCM and recruiting platforms serving multi-state employers, the practical effect is a third overlapping compliance layer, each with its own thresholds, penalties and effective date.
Virginia adds a private right of action
Virginia's SB 215 and HB 636 require covered employers to disclose the wage or salary range in every public and internal posting for a job, promotion or transfer. The law also bars employers from seeking a candidate's wage or salary history from the candidate, a former employer or a third party.
Enforcement has two tracks. The Attorney General can bring a civil action, with penalties of up to $1,000 for a first violation and up to $5,000 for each subsequent one. Separately, a prospective or current employee can sue within one year of an alleged violation and recover statutory damages of between $1,000 and $10,000, or actual damages if higher, plus attorney fees. Employers get a narrow out: if a violation is based on a defective posting, they can avoid liability to that employee by correcting the same posting within 15 business days of written notice.
Maine follows on July 29, with an open threshold question
Maine's LD 54 was signed April 24, 2026 and takes effect July 29. It applies to employers with 10 or more employees and requires a pay range in job postings, plus the right for a current employee to request the pay range tied to their own position. Employers must keep position and pay history records for three years after an employee separates.
One detail is still unresolved: the statute does not say whether the 10-employee threshold counts only employees working in Maine or an employer's total headcount nationwide. Multi-state employers with a small Maine footprint but a large national one will not know which side of the line they fall on until the state issues guidance or a court rules on it.
Delaware adds benefits disclosure, not just salary
Delaware's law, signed September 26, 2025, does not take effect until September 26, 2027, but it previews where the next round of these statutes may go. It applies to employers with more than 25 employees and requires postings for Delaware-based roles, and for US-based remote roles offered by a Delaware employer, to disclose not just a compensation range but a general description of benefits. Most existing state laws cover base pay only. The Delaware Department of Labor enforces it through administrative proceedings, with a written warning for a first violation and a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each one after that, appealable to state court.
The compliance surface keeps growing
Virginia and Maine bring the number of states requiring a salary range directly in job postings to 13, on top of the District of Columbia. Delaware will add a 14th state when its law takes effect in 2027.
None of these laws is limited to employers headquartered in the state. Because remote roles that could be performed from a covered state are generally treated as covered postings, an employer with even one remote hire in Virginia, Maine or Delaware has to comply, regardless of where its HR team sits. That is the operational problem for HR software: a single national salary field on a job requisition is no longer sufficient. Pay bands need to be structured by role and mapped against each state's effective date, disclosure scope and record-retention period, not maintained as one flat number per job.
What to watch next
Maine's law becomes enforceable July 29, the next concrete deadline in this run of statutes. Virginia's Attorney General has not yet published implementing guidance on how "internal posting" will be interpreted for promotions and transfers, an area employment lawyers flag as untested. And with Delaware set to require benefits disclosure alongside pay ranges starting in 2027, whether other states copy that broader scope, rather than sticking to salary alone, is the detail worth tracking through the rest of this legislative cycle.