Alabama pay transparency law: no range rule, the Clarke-Figures Act and what applies (2026)

Alabama has no law that requires employers to put a pay range in job postings, to give a range when a candidate asks, or to disclose pay after an interview, as of November 2026, and the Legislature's bill text search shows no 2025 or 2026 bill that would add one. What Alabama does have is the Clarke-Figures Equal Pay Act, Ala. Code 25-1-30, which bars paying employees less than employees "of another sex or race" for equal work and bars refusing to hire an applicant who will not share wage history. Federal equal pay law, the federal right to discuss pay, and the posting laws of other states for remote roles complete the picture.

Does Alabama require a salary range in job postings?

No. We found no provision in the Code of Alabama that tells an employer what a job advertisement must say about pay, and Section 25-1-30, the state's only pay equity statute, says nothing about postings. A Birmingham, Huntsville or Mobile employer may post a job without a range, does not have to answer when a candidate asks for one, and, as far as state law goes, may ask what the candidate earns now. The catch on that last point is subsection (c), covered below. The rest of the state's hiring rules, from new-hire reporting to E-Verify, are in our guide to hiring employees in Alabama.

Other Alabama screening rules have their own pages: background checks, criminal history questions and E-Verify.

Has the Alabama Legislature considered a pay transparency bill?

Not in 2025 or 2026, as far as the Legislature's own records show. We ran the bill text search, which covers all sessions, on November 3, 2026:

So the 2023 wage history bill is the last time the Legislature took up the subject, and no bill has proposed a posting duty. A future bill would have to start from scratch.

What does the Clarke-Figures Equal Pay Act require?

Section 25-1-30 has two rules that touch pay at hiring, both applying to "an employer, including the state or any of its political subdivisions, including public bodies," with no employee-count threshold in the section.

• Equal pay by sex and race, subsection (b). An employer may not pay employees "at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of another sex or race for equal work within the same establishment" on jobs requiring "equal skill, effort, education, experience, and responsibility" under similar working conditions. The exceptions are a seniority system, a merit system, a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, and "a differential based on any factor other than sex or race." Race is the part that goes beyond the federal Equal Pay Act, which covers sex only.
• Wage history refusals, subsection (c). An employer "shall not refuse to interview, hire, promote, or employ an applicant for employment, or retaliate against an applicant for employment because the applicant does not provide wage history." Asking is allowed; holding a refusal against the candidate is not. How to run a screen around that rule is in our Alabama salary history guide.

Enforcement is private. Under subsection (d) an employer who violates (b) or (c) is liable for the wages, and interest, the employee lost; subsection (e) requires employers to follow the federal Fair Labor Standards Act record-keeping rules in 29 C.F.R. Part 516; subsection (f) requires an employee claiming unequal pay to plead it with particularity; and subsection (h) sets a two-year deadline to sue.

The practical link to pay transparency: the statute does not make you publish a range, but a written range for each role, and a note of why each offer sits where it does, is the record that shows a gap rests on seniority, merit, production or another factor other than sex or race.

Can an Alabama city require pay ranges in job ads?

None has, and the state limits what cities can demand of employers. Ala. Code 25-7-41(b), added by Act 2016-18, says a county, municipality or other political subdivision "shall not enact or administer any ordinance, policy, rule, or other mandate requiring an employer to provide any employee, class of employees, or independent contractor with any employment benefit, including, but not limited to, paid or unpaid leave, vacation, wage, or work schedule, that is not required by state or federal law." Subsection (c) makes an inconsistent local mandate void.

The section is written about benefits and wages, not about what an advertisement must say, so it does not settle whether a local posting rule would survive. The question is untested because we found no Alabama city or county ordinance requiring pay ranges in postings as of November 2026.

Which federal rules apply to Alabama employers?

• Equal Pay Act and Title VII. The EEOC's equal pay page says the Equal Pay Act requires equal pay for jobs that are "substantially equal" and covers virtually all employers; Title VII adds pay discrimination claims based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin at 15 or more employees (42 U.S.C. 2000e-2).
• Prior pay in the Eleventh Circuit. Alabama sits in the Eleventh Circuit, whose 1995 decision in Irby v. Bittick held that prior salary may be used to set pay but "cannot solely carry the affirmative defense" to an Equal Pay Act claim, as the Ninth Circuit's en banc opinion in Rizo v. Yovino (2020) summarizes it. An offer anchored only on old pay is the weakest kind to defend.
• Pay discussions. The NLRB lists "talking with one or more co-workers about your wages and benefits" as protected concerted activity for most private-sector employees, so a pay-secrecy rule in a handbook is a federal problem even in a state with no transparency law.
• Federal contractors. OFCCP's pay transparency provision, 41 CFR 60-1.35, is not in force. Executive Order 14173 revoked Executive Order 11246 on January 21, 2025, and the Department of Labor's final rule rescinded the order's regulations, including part 60-1, effective October 26, 2026 (91 FR 54444). See job posting requirements for federal contractors.

When does another state's posting law reach an Alabama job?

Not through the neighbors: Georgia, Florida and Tennessee have no posting law either, as our Georgia, Florida and Tennessee pages explain. The exposure comes from remote roles and from jobs located in posting states.

For a role open to candidates in many states, the simplest course is to write one posting that meets the strictest state the ad reaches; see pay transparency for remote jobs and the full list in pay transparency laws by state.

What should recruiters and staffing agencies hiring in Alabama do?

1. Ask at intake where the hire can sit. An Alabama-only role needs no range under state law; a role open to remote candidates needs a check of every state it reaches.
2. Get the client's range in writing anyway. It answers the candidate's first question, keeps offers inside a documented band, and is ready if the role later goes remote. Agency licensing in the state is covered in staffing agency license in Alabama.
3. Treat a refusal to share pay history as neutral. Under Section 25-1-30(c) it cannot be the reason a candidate is not interviewed or hired. Ask about expectations instead; wording is in salary expectation questions.
4. Write down why each offer is what it is. Subsection (b) covers race as well as sex, so the reason has to hold up on both.
5. Keep pay-secrecy rules out of offer letters and handbooks. The NLRA protects pay discussions.

Example only: a Huntsville engineering firm posts "Systems engineer, hybrid in Huntsville or remote (US), $98,000 to $118,000, medical, dental, 401(k) match, applications close December 15." Alabama requires none of it, but the same ad satisfies Colorado's three items and Washington's two if candidates from those states apply.

Alabama pay rules at a glance

An Alabama posting checklist

ALABAMA POSTING CHECKLIST (as of November 2026)

[ ] Alabama-only role: range optional under state law; have one ready
[ ] Remote or multistate role: check each state the ad is open to
    Colorado: pay or range + benefits + application close date
    Washington: range (or fixed wage) + benefits
    Illinois: pay scale + benefits (or a link)
[ ] Screen asks about expectations; a refusal to share pay history
    is never a reason to stop a candidate (Ala. Code 25-1-30(c))
[ ] Offer reason written down: range, placement, approver
[ ] Same check for race and sex before the offer goes out
[ ] No pay-secrecy language in the offer letter or handbook
[ ] Agency: client's range and benefits received in writing