Michigan pay transparency law: no state rule, limits on city rules, and what reaches a Michigan posting

Michigan has no statewide pay transparency law for private employers, as of October 2026. No Michigan statute requires a salary range in a job posting, on request or after an interview, and Michigan is not among the states in our pay transparency tracker. Michigan cities are unlikely to fill the gap the way Cleveland and Columbus did in Ohio, because the Local Government Labor Regulatory Limitation Act of 2015 restricts local rules on hiring and pay. The one pay disclosure rule in Michigan binds state agencies: Executive Directive 2019-10 requires them to explain proposed pay in a conditional offer before any salary history question.

Does Michigan require salary ranges in job postings?

No. Michigan's minimum wage statute, the Workforce Opportunity Wage Act, covers wage rates, overtime, records and pay discrimination, and has no posting or disclosure section. Its section 13 (MCL 408.423) bars paying employees of one sex less than the other "for equal work on jobs, the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility." That is a rule about pay, not about telling applicants the pay. Michigan also has no salary history ban for private employers; see our Michigan salary history page.

The Michigan Legislature's 2025–2026 session runs through December 2026, and no pay transparency bill had become law as of October 2026. New filings can be followed through the Legislature's legislative document search.

Can a Michigan city require pay ranges?

2015 Public Act 105, the Local Government Labor Regulatory Limitation Act, lists what local governments may not regulate. Three sections matter here:

• Applications and interviews. MCL 123.1384: a local governmental body "shall not adopt, enforce, or administer an ordinance, local policy, or local resolution regulating information an employer or potential employer must request, require, or exclude on an application for employment or during the interview process."
• Wages. MCL 123.1385 bars local rules requiring a wage higher than the state minimum.
• Fringe benefits, leave and scheduling. Further sections of the same act, listed in the act's table of sections, bar local mandates on specific fringe benefits, leave and hours.

A rule that only tells employers to print a range in an ad is not named in the act, and section 123.1384 is written about what employers ask applicants rather than what they tell them, so whether the act would block a city posting rule is untested. The act's section 14 also says it does not stop a local government from prohibiting employment discrimination. In practice, we are not aware of a Michigan city that has adopted a pay posting ordinance. Salary history bans are a different matter: an ordinance telling employers to leave the question out of the interview is exactly what section 123.1384 forbids, as our salary history page explains.

What does Executive Directive 2019-10 require of state agencies?

Executive Directive 2019-10 applies to state departments and autonomous agencies supervised by the Governor. They may not ask about a job applicant's current or previous salary "unless and until the department or agency first makes a conditional offer of employment, including an explanation of proposed compensation," and may not ask a current or former employer or search public records for it. If you recruit for a Michigan state agency, pay comes first and history, if ever, comes after the offer. The directive does not reach private employers or local governments.

Which other states' laws reach a Michigan job posting?

Michigan employers hire across state and national lines every day, and the posting laws of the states around them follow the job, not the employer:

• Illinois covers positions performed at least in part in Illinois or reporting to a supervisor, office or work site there, for employers with 15 or more employees; see the Illinois guide. A Grand Rapids sales role managed from Chicago is the common case.
• New York covers jobs "performed outside of New York but reports to a supervisor, office, or other work site in New York" (Labor Law § 194-b).
• Ohio cities. A Toledo or Cleveland job with a Michigan employer is covered by that city's rule if the employer has 15 or more employees in the city; Cleveland requires a range in the posting now. See the Ohio guide.
• Remote roles open to candidates nationwide pick up Colorado, Washington, California and the others; the tests are on pay transparency for remote jobs.

Ontario's rules are a frequent question for Detroit employers who hire Windsor residents. Our remote jobs page notes that Ontario's rules do not apply to a posting for work performed outside Ontario, so a job performed in Michigan is generally outside them; see pay transparency in Canada.

Does federal law require pay ranges?

No. The federal contractor "pay transparency" provision protected employees who discussed pay; it never required ranges in ads. It rested on Executive Order 11246, which Executive Order 14173 revoked on January 21, 2025, and a Department of Labor final rule removed its regulations, including 41 CFR 60-1.35, effective October 26, 2026, so Michigan federal contractors and subcontractors no longer have a separate federal pay transparency notice to post. The NLRB says most private-sector employees, union or not, are still protected when they discuss pay, and the federal Equal Pay Act covers virtually all employers.

What do job boards and search engines do with pay?

Indeed's employer help article lists four pay formats: a fixed amount, a range, a starting amount and a maximum. Google's job posting structured data treats baseSalary as a recommended property and describes it as the base salary "as provided by the employer (not an estimate)." Michigan law accepts any of these; a two-ended range is the only format that also works in Illinois, New York, Colorado or Cleveland.

What should Michigan recruiters and staffing agencies do?

1. Write down where the job is done and where the manager sits. Those two facts decide whether Illinois, New York or an Ohio city's rule applies.
2. Post a range for remote and cross-border roles, built from a band, a budget or current pay; see how to set salary ranges for job postings.
3. Agencies: get the range at intake for out-of-state clients; see pay transparency for staffing agencies.
4. State agency recruiting: follow ED 2019-10: compensation in the conditional offer, no salary history before it.
5. Keep pay-secrecy language out of handbooks; the NLRA protects pay discussions.

Michigan at a glance

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