LOS ANGELES — California workers will now have more transparency on wages when job hunting because of a new law that went into effect at the beginning of this year.

Senate Bill 1162, authored by Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, requires companies with 15 or more employees to provide a salary range on all job postings.

“It is an issue that so many people can resonate with. We all have a story,” Limón said. “That so many of us know of people — or have stories ourselves — about the importance of pay transparency in our own lives.”

Limón joined “Inside the Issues” host Alex Cohen to discuss SB 1162 and the importance of pay transparency.

Many companies have already been posting salary ranges on job listings. This law makes the practice required. Any company that is found in violation of the law will face a civil penalty. 

The new law also requires companies with 100 or more employees to provide employee data broken down into: race, ethnicity and gender and the correlating positions the employees hold.

Some business owners fear that the new law will hurt by having them raise their costs to keep employees.

“What I would say is we also can’t afford to lose employees. There is a cost to lose an employee, there is a cost for a company to not be able to retain a qualified, trained team member,” Limón said.

A point of concern for Limón is the liberties companies can take when providing a salary range.

Companies can provide very large ranges, so potential employees would have no idea about the actual salary.

“We know of companies that have these extremely wide ranges and we know they are also the companies that are being frowned upon,” Limón said.

Limón notes this bill will help narrow the pay and equity gap for women and people of color, but there is still more that needs to be done to close the gap.

Let "Inside the Issues" know your thoughts and watch Monday through Friday at 8 and 11 p.m. on Spectrum News 1.