Delaware pay transparency law: what changes on September 26, 2027

Delaware has an enacted pay transparency law, but it does not take effect until September 26, 2027. From that date, employers with 26 or more employees must include the hourly or salary compensation range and a general description of benefits and other compensation in every internal and external posting for a job opportunity. As of October 2026 there is nothing to change in a Delaware posting yet, which makes this a planning page: what the law requires, what it exempts, and what to set up before the date arrives.

The statute and its timeline

The law is House Substitute No. 2 for House Bill No. 105 of the 153rd General Assembly, approved September 26, 2025 and published as Chapter 228 of Volume 85 of the Laws of Delaware. It adds a new section, 19 Del. C. § 709C, "Transparency in pay rates, employment, and advancement opportunities." Section 2 of the act says it "takes effect 2 years after its enactment into law," which puts the start date at September 26, 2027.

The Delaware Department of Labor administers and enforces the section. It may investigate, adjudicate violations through administrative proceedings, and must adopt regulations setting out those procedures.

Which employers will be covered

Subsection (h) sets the threshold: the section "does not apply to an employer with 25 or fewer employees." For an employer with 26 or more employees, it applies to jobs located in Delaware and to "non-international remote positions offered by an employer based in Delaware."

Read that remote clause carefully. A Delaware-based employer's remote job open to candidates anywhere in the United States is covered. A remote job offered by an employer based in another state is not described by that clause, even if a Delaware resident could do it, unless the job is otherwise "located in Delaware." Where an out-of-state company hires someone to work from Delaware, whether the job is "located" there is a question the forthcoming regulations may answer; until then, treat it as covered.

What postings will need to include

Whenever a covered employer announces, posts or otherwise makes known a job opportunity, it must include:

• The hourly or salary compensation, or the compensation range. The act defines the range as the minimum to maximum pay range for the position, set in good faith by reference to an applicable pay scale, a previously determined range, the actual range of others in equivalent positions, or the budgeted amount. The breadth of the range is expressly "one factor relevant" to whether the employer acted in good faith.
• A general description of the benefits and other compensation applicable to the job opportunity.

The duty covers both internal and external job postings. A promotion announced only on the intranet needs the same information as an ad on a job board, so plan to update your internal job posting template along with external ad copy.

If no posting was made available to an applicant, the employer must still give that applicant the range and the benefits description before any offer or discussion of compensation, and at any time the applicant asks.

Special cases written into the act

Note how broad the commission carve-out is. Like Vermont, and unlike Maine, which only exempts roles paid solely on commission, Delaware lets any role paid on commission "in whole or in part" disclose that fact instead of a number. Expect the regulations or later practice to test how far that goes for roles with a substantial base salary.

Records

Covered employers must make, keep and preserve records of job descriptions and salary or wage rate history for each employee for at least three years, and make them available to the Department of Labor on request. Check now whether your HRIS keeps a history of job descriptions, not just current ones; many systems overwrite them.

Penalties and how violations are counted

• First offense: a written warning.
• Second or later offense: a civil penalty of not less than $500 and not more than $10,000 for each violation.
• Counting: "An employer's failure to comply with this section for 1 job opportunity is 1 violation regardless of the number of times it is posted." A missing range syndicated to twenty job boards is one violation, not twenty.
• Retaliation: discharging or discriminating against someone for complaining to, or giving information to, the department, or for taking part in a proceeding, carries a separate civil penalty of $500 to $10,000 per act.
• Appeals: a party aggrieved by the Secretary of Labor's final order may appeal to the Superior Court within 30 days, on the record.

The act does not create a private right of action for applicants. Enforcement runs through the Department of Labor.

Recruiters, job boards and copied postings

Delaware is unusually explicit about third parties. Subsection (g) says a third party who posts or reposts a notification about a job opportunity "is not subject to liability or enforcement under this section," and an employer "is not liable for job postings that are digitally replicated and published without the employer's consent." The duty sits squarely with the employer. For an agency, that means the legal exposure belongs to the client, but a client who receives a warning letter will still ask why the agency's ad left the range out, so carry the range and benefits summary in every Delaware ad you write.

Questions the act leaves open

Several points will matter in practice and are not settled by the text as of October 2026:

• How employees are counted. The act borrows the employer definition in § 709A and sets the 25-or-fewer exemption, but it does not say whether employees outside Delaware count toward the 26.
• What "based in Delaware" means. Many companies are incorporated in Delaware but operate elsewhere. Whether incorporation alone makes an employer "based in Delaware" for the remote-position rule is not addressed. Read literally, a Delaware-incorporated company headquartered in another state could argue either way; treat it as unresolved until the department or a court says otherwise.
• What counts as an "immediate hire." The temporary, interim and acting exemption depends on it, and the act leaves the details to regulations.
• The privacy clause. Subsection (f) says nothing in the section requires an employer to identify a selected candidate in a way that violates privacy rights or risks their safety. The act does not otherwise require announcing who was selected, so this clause may anticipate future regulations or guidance.

Each of these is worth a note in your compliance calendar to revisit when the Department of Labor publishes its rules.

What to do between now and September 2027

1. Count employees. Confirm whether you are above 25 and how close you are to the line.
2. Decide where your company is "based." That determines whether your nationwide remote roles are covered.
3. Build ranges by job, not by posting. One documented range per job opportunity matches how the law counts violations.
4. Write a standard benefits paragraph that can drop into any Delaware posting.
5. Set up three-year retention for job descriptions and pay rate history.
6. Watch for Department of Labor regulations, especially on temporary roles and how it will adjudicate complaints.

Neighboring New Jersey and Maryland already require ranges, so a posting built to their standard will be close to Delaware-ready; see the New Jersey guide and the Maryland guide, and the pay transparency laws by state overview for the full list.