California Pay Data Reports Are Due May 13. Your HRIS Needs the Pay Decision Record.
California Reporting Year 2025 pay data is due May 13, 2026. Build the proof trail in HRIS, payroll, and recruiting before the report runs.
California pay data is due May 13
California’s Reporting Year 2025 pay data report is due May 13, 2026. Coverage runs to private employers with 100 or more payroll employees and to private client employers with 100 or more labor contractor employees. If you use a staffing agency for temporary workers, plan to file a separate labor contractor report. The agency runs payroll. You still file.
Two coverage rules trip operators every year. A remote worker assigned to a California location counts toward the threshold even if they live in another state. Labor contractor temps need their own California report, separate from your main filing.
If you are covered, our multi-state compliance support team can walk through the assignment versus physical-location call before May 13. After May 13 we walk through it for a different reason.
The penalty under SB 464 is not automatic. Upon CRD request, a court shall impose a civil penalty not to exceed $100 per employee for a first failure, and not to exceed $200 per employee for each subsequent failure. The amount can be lower in any given case. The exposure scales with headcount, so a 250-person employer has more at stake than a 110-person employer.
The CRD says Reporting Year 2025 reports should include three new data fields: exemption status, employment type (full-time, part-time, or intermittent), and weeks worked. The job category structure is also moving from 10 EEO-1 classifications to 23 standard occupational classifications. Confirm your HRIS can export those fields now. Backfilling them later from incomplete payroll history is a separate project.
Operator insight
When a state asks why a comparator was paid more, the first report we pull is the compensation change history filtered to records with a blank reason code or a generic note like market adjustment. Those are pay decisions a payroll register can prove happened. The HR record cannot defend them.
Build the HRIS comp-change record before the rate posts
Most HRIS comp-change forms ask for a new rate and an effective date. That is it. Payroll picks up the rate. The change posts cleanly. The record carries no defensible reason.
Five required fields close that gap. Build the form so it will not submit without them.
Comp-change form: required fields
If your HRIS platform does not gate these five fields, treat the last 12 months of comp changes as your audit baseline. Pull the change history report. Filter to blank reason codes and generic notes. Remediate before the next state filing. Every record with all five fields is easier to explain if an agency, attorney, or employee questions the pay decision.
State-by-state dollar exposure for pay equity compliance
California is the deadline that drives the calendar. The other states drive the workflow design. Federal law sets the floor. The Equal Pay Act covers gender-based pay differences with a two-year statute of limitations under 29 U.S.C. § 255, or three years for willful violations. EEO-1 reporting applies to private employers with 100 or more employees and to federal contractors with 50 or more employees and contracts above $50,000.
Some states allow up to 300% liquidated damages and lookback windows of up to six years. Others have specific rules an out-of-state employer can miss.
Pay equity exposure by state
| State | Statute | Damages | Coverage trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Cal. Gov. Code § 12999, Cal. Labor Code § 1197.5 | Civil penalty not to exceed $100 / $200 per employee (first / subsequent failure) on CRD request and court order under SB 464 | Remote workers assigned to a California location count. Labor contractors need a separate report. |
| New Jersey | N.J.S.A. 10:5-12(t) (Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act) | Treble damages, six-year lookback | Comparators may be drawn from anywhere in the company, not just one location. |
| Washington | RCW 49.58.110 (pay transparency) | Statutory damages of $100 to $5,000 per violation, plus reasonable attorneys’ fees | Five-business-day correction window for postings made July 27, 2025 through July 27, 2027. |
| Illinois | 820 ILCS 112 (Equal Pay Registration Certificate) | Up to $10,000 per violation after a 30-day cure period | EPRC is not a safe harbor. Employees may request anonymized pay data limited to job title, classification, and county. |
| Massachusetts | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149, § 105A (MEPA) | Unpaid wages plus equal liquidated damages (2x), three-year limitations period | Self-evaluation defense if the audit is counsel-led, reasonable in scope, and shows reasonable progress toward remediation. |
| New York City | Int. 982-A (NYC pay data reporting law) | $1,000 civil penalty after written warning and 30-day cure window | More than 200 NYC-area employees. Effective Dec 4, 2025. First reports due no earlier than Dec 4, 2028. |
Massachusetts gives employers one of the strongest self-evaluation defenses on the books. It is not a free pass. The audit should be counsel-led so attorney-client privilege protects the analysis. The scope must be reasonable for the size of the employer. The employer must show reasonable progress toward remediation. Run the audit before a complaint, not after.
Stop salary history from setting offers and audit every posting
Most state salary history bans cover two things. They prohibit asking applicants about prior pay. They also prohibit relying on prior pay to set the offer.
Prior-pay data still leaks in. It shows up in screening calls, recruiter notes, and follow-up questions that land in the offer thread. If your offer record references what the candidate was earning, the file looks built on prior pay. The math may have come from the published range. The file does not show that.
Salary-history decision framework
Do this
- Strip prior-pay questions from applications, screening scripts, and recruiter notes. Some courts and state laws reject prior pay as a stand-alone justification for a pay difference. Do not build offer math from candidate-supplied prior compensation. Build it from the posted range, experience, certification, performance, geography, or a dated market study.
- Publish a pay scale on every external and internal posting in any state with a transparency law. Washington statutory damages run $100 to $5,000 per violation under RCW 49.58.110, with a five-business-day correction window for postings made July 27, 2025 through July 27, 2027.
- Attach the offer basis to the requisition: posted band, experience factor, certification, geography, performance record, or dated market study.
Not this
- Do not anchor an offer on a candidate’s volunteered prior pay.
- Do not rely on a state-specific exemption for a remote worker assigned to a different state.
- Do not skip the posting audit on internal moves and promotions. Pay-transparency rules cover internal postings in several states.
Wire the rule check into requisition intake with our HR support for hiring workflows. Not into a posting review at the end. When the recruiter selects a posting location, the system should fire the salary-history rule, the pay-scale requirement, and the comparator definition before the role goes live.
How VertiSource HR builds the proof trail before the audit
Pay equity is a records workflow now. HRIS, payroll, recruiting, and the compensation-change form. As an operating standard, use a six-year retention floor for offers, promotions, market studies, comparator reviews, and approvals when you operate across states with longer pay-equity lookback periods. Match retention to the longest exposure, not the shortest payroll-archive default.
Next 30 days
That checklist is what we build with clients. Multi-state compliance support wires the reason field. Payroll administration carries the factors forward to the rate change. Contact VertiSource HR so the same answer shows up in the posting, the rate change, the approval note, and the employee record. General HR guidance only. Not legal advice.
Turn this into a working pay equity control
VertiSource HR can build the compensation change report, required HRIS reason fields, state-tagged posting checklist, and follow-up review so HR, payroll, and recruiting are working from the same pay decision record.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the California pay data report due, and who has to file?
California’s Reporting Year 2025 pay data report is due May 13, 2026, filed under Cal. Gov. Code § 12999. Coverage runs to private employers with 100 or more payroll employees and to private client employers with 100 or more labor contractor employees. A worker assigned to a California location counts toward coverage even if they live in another state. Under SB 464, upon CRD request, a court shall impose a civil penalty not to exceed $100 per employee for a first failure and not to exceed $200 per employee for each subsequent failure. Labor contractor temporary workers from staffing agencies require a separate report.
What does Washington fine for a job posting that omits the pay scale?
Washington’s pay transparency law (RCW 49.58.110) provides statutory damages of $100 to $5,000 per violation, plus reasonable attorneys’ fees, for employers with 15 or more employees and at least one Washington-based worker. Postings made between July 27, 2025 and July 27, 2027 carry a five-business-day correction window after written notice. If the posting is corrected within that window, no penalty or damages are assessed for the violation.
How do state lookback periods change my retention plan?
As an operating standard, use a six-year retention floor for offers, promotions, market studies, comparator reviews, and approvals when you operate across states with longer pay-equity lookback periods. Some state pay equity laws allow liquidated damages of up to 300% and lookback windows of up to six years, so the retention plan should match the longest exposure, not the shortest payroll archive default.
Disclaimer: This content is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, accounting, or professional advice. Consult a qualified attorney or licensed advisor before making employment, payroll, or compliance decisions. VertiSource HR disclaims all liability for actions taken or not taken based on this material.