In 2021, Colorado became the first state in the US to require companies to publicly disclose salary ranges on job postings.

More than 5 states have enacted salary transparency laws, and at least 15 states are considering it.

Pay transparency is a relatively new legal phenomenon, so studies on its impact are limited. However, this article details a few early studies that suggest pay transparency legislation could help decrease the gender pay gap, increase labor participation rates, and reduce employer recruiting costs. Learn more here.

One of the driving forces behind an increase in pay transparency laws is their ability to help close the gender pay gap.

Since 2018, pay transparency laws have been enacted in more than a few states and cities across the US. But what's driving the trend, from a legal perspective? This law review article attempts to answer that question, citing factors such as the Great Recession and the gender pay gap—click here to learn more.

The impact of knowing your coworker’s salary

In 2025, five more states enacted pay transparency laws, requiring employers to disclose salaries in job postings. The goal? Reduce wage gaps and promote fairness. But despite these laws, 42% of job listings still hide pay details.

Research shows that increased pay transparency could result in lower wage growth and a potential decrease in worker bargaining power.

Research on pay transparency's impacts has been limited given the short amount of time since American states began passing pay transparency legislation. However, this early study from researchers out of Brown and Harvard found that increasing pay transparency could have the potential to decrease worker bargaining power, resulting in lower average wages for employees. Read the research here.

Generally speaking, pay transparency occurs when an employer provides compensation information.

Generally speaking, pay transparency occurs when an employer provides compensation information. But that idea can take many different forms in different states with different pay transparency laws depending on what each specific law dictates. To learn about more pay transparency basics like the ones above, read this article.

Read about potential changes to pay transparency laws at the federal level, as well as key aspects of states' transparency laws.

While many US states have pay transparency laws, no similar legislation has been passed at a federal level. However, the Salary Transparency Act was introduced in Congress in March 2023. For details about what that legislation would mandate and its status in the US House and Senate, click here.

Read a breakdown of each state's pay transparency laws.

Pay transparency laws in the US are evolving quickly, as some states introduce them for the first time and others update existing legislation. This resource has an updated list of key pay transparency legislation in states across the country, as well as general explainers about what each of those laws dictate. Check it out here.

Pay transparency advocates claim that increased awareness about how much coworkers are being paid helps stop speculative judgments about other team members' pay based on faulty data points, like what type of car a coworker drives.

Despite being completely legal to discuss salaries with your coworkers, the practice largely remains taboo in the US, particularly amongst older workers.

Pay transparency—once considered taboo—is gaining momentum. Despite being legally protected since 1935, open salary discussions have only recently become more common, especially among younger workers. This overview explores how cultural norms, economic shifts, and new state laws are reshaping the conversation around what we earn.

Read a breakdown of the pros and cons of pay transparency.

While the benefits of pay transparency may seem plentiful to some, there are a few less obvious downsides. For instance, some argue companies that implement pay transparency could end up hiring fewer people or pitting employees against each other. For a full list of perceived pros and cons of pay transparency, click here.

Listen to a pay transparency expert breakdown what she's learned about negotiating a higher salary.

Maybe you've seen one of Hannah Williams' videos on social media. On her viral "Salary Transparent Street" accounts, Williams stands on the street with a microphone and asks passersby to tell her how much money they make per year. This podcast interview with Williams details what she's learned about pay transparency in the process. Listen to it here.

Read a profile about a company that makes everyone's salaries public knowledge in an effort to curb the gender pay gap.

At social media management platform Buffer, employees have been able to see each other's salaries since the year 2013. This article explains how Buffer's decision to make these numbers public has impacted the social media company's workplace culture, internal wage growth, and more. Read the article here.

There's a widespread taboo around talking about money in the US, but that taboo is widely different across the lower and upper classes, as well as amongst different races.

In the United States, asking someone how much money they make (or any questions about money, really) has long been considered rude. But where did this social norm come from originally? And why do Americans still feel so awkward talking about money? This article from The Atlantic takes a deep dive into the socioeconomic forces that created the money taboo. Read the full piece here.

US states have reported over $25B in tax revenue from recreational cannabis sales and medical marijuana.

Nearly 42% of Gen Z workers have shared their salary with a coworker, compared to just 19% of Baby Boomers.

An animation of how the minimum wage changed every year from 1968 to 2018

In the United States, both the federal and state minimum wages have changed a lot over the years. See how—both in each state and at the federal level.

Federal law requires payday lenders to meet certain transparency requirements, but states have their own regulations

Federal law treats payday lending like other lines of credit, meaning it requires lenders to disclose the loan's interest rate and its "finance charge," a dollar amount expressing the full cost of the loan. But states have their own regulations around payday lending, hence why it isn't allowed in every state and why the industry looks so different across the country. These regulations are often part of a state's usury laws.

Read why some states are considering imposing a flat tax rate that isn't adjusted by income

Wisconsin was the first US state to impose a state income tax, close in time to when the federal income tax went into effect. Many states followed suit, but nine states to this day still don't levy wage-related taxes.

Colorado legislates neural and biological data generated by the nervous system

The law expands personal privacy protections to include data from brain activity, marking the first legal step of its kind in the US. It targets companies involved in consumer neurotechnologies, which were previously not required to restrict user data access.

See how income levels have changed in each state since 2010

Since 2010, the median household income has increased by 22% on average. Montana, the state with the largest growth rate, saw a 42.9% increase, while New Mexico saw the lowest income growth rate at 2.3%.

Police officer salaries vary dramatically depending on where officers serve

Officer pay varies significantly across states and cities, with the highest salaries in California, New Jersey, and Washington. Factors such as local funding, cost of living, and collective bargaining agreements influence compensation.

The federal minimum wage in the US has been $7.25 per hour since 2009—making this the longest the US has gone without a minimum wage increase since 1938.

Explore an interactive chart that shows peoples' annual salaries by occupation

The median salary for full-time workers in the United States was roughly $49.5K in 2024. An interactive chart details how salaries differ by occupation.

On average, CEOs at top US companies make 281 times as much as the average worker—partly due to valuable stock options that are frequently included in executive compensation packages.

American CEOs are so wealthy in part because of stock buybacks, the process of a company purchasing shares of its own stock.

Part of the reason why American teachers aren't paid well has to do with gender

In the US, the wage gap between teachers and others with the same level of education and experience was nearly 20% as of 2021, per CNBC. That's partly because teaching was originally branded as a woman's profession.

See every time the minimum wage has been raised.

The best US cities for entry-level jobs with livable wages

In Bakersfield, California, 100% of entry-level job ads on Indeed recently claimed to pay above the local living wage. But other cities, like Honolulu, Hawaii, aren't as livable for entry-level workers: Just 27.69% of new job posts advertise a salary in line with the city's living wage.

Since its inception in 1938, Congress has raised the federal minimum wage 22 times

If you want all the details about when and why these rate increases happened check out this resource from the US Department of Labor.

San Francisco has the highest-paying average monthly salary in the US at $7,092

Other relatively high monthly average salaries in major cities worldwide include those in Switzerland, specifically Geneva at $7,984 and Zurich at $7,788. This chart shows other major cities across the world with high average monthly salaries.

What a $100K salary is worth in different US cities

While hitting the six-figure salary mark has long been seen as an indicator of career success, earning $100K per year doesn’t feel the same in every US city. This article details just how much that salary is worth in different places around the United States, from Memphis, Tennessee to New York City. Find out more here.

A former recruiter's 10 rules for salary negotiation start with one piece of advice: never give your number first.

When a state's minimum wage differs from the federal minimum wage, the higher number wins out.

The 50 best (and highest paying) jobs in America

Here are the 50 Best Jobs in America, according to Glassdoor. Where does your job fall? This report ranks jobs according to each job’s Glassdoor Job Score, determined by combining three factors: number of job openings, salary, and overall job satisfaction rating.

Based on the number of patents, venture capital investment, and research and development spending per capita in 2025, America's most innovative states are California, Massachusetts, and Delaware.

The United States currently ranks number one for countries that enable the most financial secrecy

Financial secrecy refers to complex systems that make it easy for people and companies to hide assets. High levels of financial secrecy are associated with illegal activity, like drug trafficking and money laundering. Lax regulations around reporting who owns trusts, real estate, and businesses impact the United States' global financial secrecy ranking.

The first federal minimum wage wasn't set until 1938, when it was 25 cents per hour.

Visualize the most common job in every US state, from fast food worker to home health aide

Washington is the only state where "software developer" was the most common job (thanks, in part, to Microsoft and Amazon), whereas "fast food worker" was the most common occupation in 17 states.

Tipped workers in ‘$2.13 states’ experience an estimated 18.5% poverty rates

In so-called “equal treatment states,” where tipped workers are subject to the normal federal minimum wage or higher rather than the tipped minimum wage, the poverty rate is 11.1%.

Some argue that credit reporting promotes economic inequality in the US

Although today's credit scoring system is much more objective than, say, the credit assessment system of the 1700s, some argue there's still room for improvement, with critics saying the current system is still discriminatory. For example, while mortgage payments have long been automatically reported to credit bureaus, rent payments (the primary housing expense for most lower-income Americans) historically haven't been reported unless a payment was missed.

See a breakdown of every state's portion of the entire US gross domestic product.

In 2024, 15% of US laborers worked remotely

At the time, Frisco, Texas, had the highest share of remote workers among large US cities, at 34% (or 42,000 people). Frisco was closely followed by Berkeley, California, at 32% (18,000 people).

Missouri had the fastest job growth rate in 2025

Between 2024 and 2025, Missouri had a 1.7% job growth rate—representing the percent increase in jobs in a particular state over the course of a year. North Carolina and South Carolina trailed Missouri with annual job growth rates of 1.5% and 1.3% respectively.

27 states have right-to-work laws

That means employees in those states can choose whether or not to join a union at their workplace. Right-to-work laws also make it optional for employees in unionized workplaces to pay fees associated with union membership.

California has the highest median rent in the US at $2,104

Hawaii has the second-highest median rent in the US at roughly $1,942 per month, including utilities. That's as of 2024, based on data from the US Census Bureau.

In 2025, Democratic-led states moved to counter with their own redistricting plans

In response to Republican mid-decade redistricting efforts, Democratic leaders in California, New York, Illinois, and Maryland signaled plans to revisit their own congressional maps.

See Silicon Valley's real estate, employment, population, and innovation statistics

As a leader in the global economy, Silicon Valley's growth is closely watched around the world. In 2025, companies in the region posted $92B in venture capital deals and created 23,000 new patents. The average wage in the region is $189K, which is much higher than the national average, but the median home price sits around $2.25M—which calls the sustainability of the region's living standards into question.

The most taxed states in America

Some states in the US have higher taxes than others. Hawaii, for instance, has the highest total tax burden in the country at 13.9%, whereas Alaska has the lowest overall tax burden at 4.9%. New York has the highest individual income tax burden; and eight states have no individual income tax. See a map of the most-taxed US states here.

The most common job in each US state in 2024

In 15 states, the most common job by number of employees is "fast food worker." Other most common jobs include cashiers and nurses.

The number of publicly traded companies has decreased in recent years.

In 1996, more than 7,300 companies traded publicly on US stock markets, but that number has recently dropped to 4,300. Economists point to two reasons: First, going public requires full disclosure of operations, exposing it to scrutiny from investors, competitors, and analysts. Second, the IPO process is expensive and time-consuming.