Pay Transparency Laws for Dental Job Postings

As of October 6, 2026, DentistryHires' law table counted fourteen states plus DC with a law requiring a pay range in job postings: Colorado, California, Washington, New York, Hawaii, DC, Maryland, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maine and Connecticut.

Delaware has passed a law that is not in force yet.

Each state sets its own employee threshold and its own effective date, so the same practice can be covered in one state and exempt next door.

On the dates: Washington, Hawaii, DC, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut come from the statutes and state agencies cited for each row.

The California, New York, Maryland, Vermont, Virginia and Maine dates are as listed in that same DentistryHires release, last checked against statute text or state labor departments on October 6, 2026.

Two city laws sit on top of the state map.

Since November 1, 2022, the New York City Human Rights Law has required a good faith pay range in all job advertisements for jobs performed in New York City.

And Cleveland, Ohio has its own local pay transparency ordinance — Cleveland Codified Ordinances Chapter 669, enforced by the city's Fair Employment Wage Board — while Ohio itself had no statewide posting law on the October 6, 2026 list.

Delaware is next in line: its law is enacted but not in force as of October 7, 2026.

It takes effect two years after enactment, and it does not apply to employers with 25 or fewer employees — a line a single-office practice can sit under.

The listings show how normal the range has become.

On October 6, 2026, 79.4% of the 11,591 active listings on DentistryHires stated a pay rate or range; in states whose law requires a range in postings, 93.8% of listings stated pay, against 69.2% everywhere else — DentistryHires notes that comparison measures listing rates, not legal compliance.

The full breakdown by state and role is in our dental pay transparency data release.

The thresholds are low enough to catch small teams, and they do not count the same way.

Colorado and DC reach an employer with a single employee.

New York starts at four, Vermont at five, Maine at ten, New Jersey at ten over 20 calendar weeks, California, Washington and Illinois at fifteen, Massachusetts at twenty-five in the state, Minnesota at thirty in the state, and Hawaii at fifty.

Maryland's section sets no employee-count threshold, Connecticut covers employers of any size, and the Virginia law this page carries names no size threshold.

Count the way the state counts.

New Jersey's ten-employee count includes employees working outside New Jersey, so staff in your back office across the river count toward it.

Minnesota and Massachusetts count employees in the state.

DC's law reaches anyone employing at least one employee in the district, and Colorado's reaches anyone employing at least one person in Colorado.

Run the arithmetic: a two-dentist practice with a dozen employees is covered in Colorado, DC, New York, Vermont, New Jersey and Maine — and, with no size floor, in Maryland and Connecticut — but not yet in California, Washington, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota or Hawaii.

Hire three more people and the same practice crosses the fifteen-employee line in three more states.

One California wrinkle applies even below the posting threshold: California employers of any size must give an applicant the pay scale for the position on reasonable request.

The fifteen-employee line governs the duty to put the scale in postings; the request duty has no size floor.

If a California applicant asks, a two-chair practice answers.

Two statutory definitions do most of the work.

California defines a "pay scale" as a good faith estimate of the salary or hourly wage range the employer reasonably expects to pay for the position upon hire.

New York defines a "range of compensation" as the minimum and maximum salary or hourly range the employer in good faith believes accurate at the time the ad is posted.

In both states the test is your honest expectation when the ad goes up.

Post a range with both ends.

Colorado's guidance says a posted range cannot lack a top or a bottom — not "$30,000 and up", not "up to $60,000".

Minnesota's law reads the same way: a salary range may not be open ended, and an employer that does not plan to offer a range must list a fixed pay rate instead.

That is also why the "competitive pay" and "pay DOE" lines cannot meet the definitions above: they contain no minimum and no maximum.

DentistryHires counts listings that describe pay only in words like those as not stating pay at all.

New York adds a second element: the ad must include the job description if one exists.

And New Jersey has gone further in proposal only — draft rules, not final, would bar pay ranges whose top exceeds the bottom by more than 60% of the bottom figure.

Treat that as a proposal to watch, not a cap in force.

Commission pay has carve-outs in three of the states on this page.

In New York, an ad for a job paid solely on commission complies by stating generally that compensation will be based on commission.

In Vermont, an ad for a job paid wholly or partly on commission must disclose that fact but need not state a range.

Maine's law skips the range only where the position is compensated solely on commission.

For dental pay that carve-out is narrower than it looks.

A production-based associate role with a daily guarantee or minimum is not paid "solely" on commission, so the New York exception does not fit it — post the guaranteed piece as a range.

New York, Vermont and Maine are the only commission exceptions this page carries; confirm your own state's text before skipping the range anywhere else.

As for the numbers themselves: the two definitions above set a good-faith test, not a particular number.

Build yours from what you budgeted for the chair and what you actually expect the hire to earn in the first year, then sanity-check it against what similar roles post — our hygienist salary guide and associate dentist salary guide collect the budget ranges.

Several of these laws reach past the hourly rate.

Washington requires the posting to include a general description of all of the benefits and other compensation to be offered to the hired applicant.

Colorado requires a general description of any other compensation — such as bonuses, commissions, or tips.

Illinois requires the pay scale and benefits in any specific job posting, and says a hyperlink to a public page with that information satisfies the rule.

Maryland requires the wage range plus a general description of benefits and any other compensation; Minnesota, New Jersey and Connecticut require the same general description of benefits, and New Jersey's wording covers the other compensation programs the employee would be eligible for.

Washington DC splits the duty in two: the minimum and maximum projected salary or hourly pay goes in the listing, and the existence of healthcare benefits must be disclosed before the first interview — a pre-interview step no other law on this page carries.

Map that to a dental posting and it means the variable pieces belong in the ad alongside the base rate: a hygiene production bonus, an associate's percentage formula, a signing bonus, a continuing-education allowance.

In the states listed above, describe that other compensation in general terms in the posting itself.

New York's law is the one on this page that reaches past its own borders.

It covers ads for jobs, promotions or transfers performed at least partly in New York, and it also covers jobs outside New York that report to a New York supervisor or office.

A role split between an Erie, Pennsylvania practice and its Buffalo clinic days is "at least partly" in New York.

If a recruiter, staffing agency or job board posts for you, the range still has to be in the ad — and California puts part of that duty on you directly: an employer with 15 or more employees must include the pay scale in any job posting and must give it to any third party it uses to post jobs.

Hand the range to whoever publishes the ad, then check what they actually ran.

For a group recruiting across state lines, the workable habit is to write one compliant ad.

If a posting can be filled in — or performed partly in — any of the fourteen states plus DC on the list above, include a good-faith range in every copy of it.

Remote roles count too: a billing coordinator working from home sits in a state, and New York, for one, keys off where the work is performed — it covers jobs performed at least partly within it.

When the posting facts are unusual, that is a question for employment counsel, not a guess in the ad.

Where this page carries the statute's own numbers, they look like this:

New York handles enforcement through complaints: applicants and employees can file pay-transparency complaints with the New York State Department of Labor's Division of Labor Standards.

No penalty figure appears on this page for the remaining map states — Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, Illinois, Minnesota, Vermont, Connecticut, Maine and DC — or for New York, so confirm current amounts with the statute or your employment counsel before weighing the risk.

The cure periods are the practical story.

Washington waives the penalty when the posting is corrected within five business days of written notice, Virginia's law removes the lawsuit when it is corrected within 15 business days of notice, and California forgives a first violation that ends with every open posting updated.

Whatever the state, the cheap move is the same: fix the ad the day someone points at it.

Pay is one slice of a compliant hiring ad — the dental hiring hub collects the rest of our employer guides, from screening to contracts.