West Virginia pay transparency law: no range rule, the Fair Pay Act bills that stalled, and Maryland and Virginia next door (2026)

West Virginia has no law that requires employers to post a pay range, to give one to applicants, or to stop asking about salary history, as of November 2026. The bill that would have created those rules, the Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan Fair Pay Act, was introduced in 2025 as HB 2826 and in 2026 as HB 5116, and both times it stopped at referral to the House Judiciary Committee. What West Virginia does require is a written notice of the rate of pay at hire, under W. Va. Code 21-5-9. West Virginia is also bordered by two states that do require ranges in postings, Maryland and Virginia, and they are the rules most likely to reach a West Virginia employer.

Does West Virginia require salary ranges in job postings?

No. A Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown or Wheeling employer may post with or without pay, and no state statute requires a range on request or after an interview. West Virginia is not among the posting states in our state-by-state tracker, and we found no West Virginia city ordinance that requires pay in job ads. The state's other hiring rules are collected in hiring employees in West Virginia.

What would the Fair Pay Act bills have done?

Both versions carry the same title and lead sponsor, Delegate Young. HB 2826 was introduced on February 24, 2025, with Delegate Hamilton as a cosponsor; HB 5116 was introduced on February 3, 2026. Each was referred to the House Judiciary Committee on its first day, and neither bill history shows any later action. The introduced text of HB 5116 would have created a new article, W. Va. Code 21-5J:

• Range on request, not in the ad. "On request, an employer shall provide to an applicant for employment the range of wages, benefits, and other compensation" for the position. It had no posting requirement.
• Limits on wage history. An employer could not ask about past wages, benefits or other compensation except as the bill allowed, and could not refuse to interview or hire an applicant who declined to provide them or who asked for the range. After an initial offer with compensation, the employer could rely on wage history the applicant volunteered to support a higher offer.
• Pay discussions. Employees could ask about, discuss and disclose their own pay, and employers could not prohibit it, require a waiver or retaliate.
• Every employer. "Employer" meant "any person, firm, or corporation employing any employee," with a private civil action for damages, fees and injunctive relief.

Because the bills died in committee, none of this is law. Any revival would need a new bill in a later session.

What pay notice does West Virginia law require at hire?

W. Va. Code 21-5-9, part of the Wage Payment and Collection Act, applies to "Every person, firm and corporation." It requires the employer to:

1. "Notify his employees in writing, at the time of hiring of the rate of pay, and of the day, hour, and place of payment";
2. notify employees in writing, or through a posted notice, of any change to those arrangements before the change takes effect;
3. make vacation pay, sick leave and similar policies available in writing or on a posted notice;
4. give an itemized statement of deductions for each pay period in which deductions are made; and
5. keep posted the abstract of the article furnished by the Commissioner of Labor.

So the pay disclosure West Virginia actually mandates happens in the offer letter, not the job ad. An offer that states the rate, the payday, the pay location or method, and links to the leave policies covers it.

What West Virginia laws cover pay discrimination?

Two, with an unusual gap between them.

The equal pay article reaches few private employers. W. Va. Code 21-5B-3 bars paying employees of one sex less than the other "for work of comparable character, the performance of which requires comparable skills," with exceptions for seniority or merit systems and for differentials "based in good faith on factors other than sex." But the definition in 21-5B-1 says the term employer "shall not include any individual, corporation, business trust, or similar unit whose operations are subject to any federal act relating to equal wages for equal work, regardless of sex." Since the EEOC describes the federal Equal Pay Act as covering "virtually all employers," the federal Act does most of the work for private employers in West Virginia.

The Human Rights Act has moved. Its employment provisions now sit in Chapter 16B, Article 17 of the Code; the old Chapter 5, Article 11 sections show as repealed by 2024 Senate Bill 300 on the Code site. Under W. Va. Code 16B-17-9(1) it is an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer "to discriminate against an individual with respect to compensation, hire, tenure, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment," and 16B-17-3 defines discrimination as unequal treatment because of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, age (40 or above), blindness, disability or familial status. It covers the state, its political subdivisions and any person employing 12 or more persons in the state for 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding year.

When do Maryland's and Virginia's laws reach a West Virginia job?

West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle sits between Maryland and Virginia, and the southern counties border Virginia. Both neighbors require pay in postings, with different triggers:

Virginia's enforcement has teeth and a cure window: the Attorney General may seek up to $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for later ones, and a person who sends written notice of a posting violation cannot sue if the employer corrects the posting on the original posting locations within 15 business days. The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry's July 2026 summary also tells employers to make sure recruiters posting jobs on their behalf know the law. More detail is in our Maryland and Virginia guides.

The other neighbors add no state posting duty: Pennsylvania and Kentucky have none, and Ohio has none at the state level, though Cleveland and Columbus have their own rules (see the Ohio guide).

Which federal rules apply?

• Pay discussions. Most private-sector employees "have the right to communicate with their coworkers about their wages," and rules that specifically prohibit it are unlawful, according to the NLRB.
• Federal contractors. The pay transparency rule at 41 CFR 60-1.35 was removed with the rest of the Executive Order 11246 regulations, effective October 26, 2026, after Executive Order 14173 revoked the order on January 21, 2025 (91 FR 54444). See job posting requirements for federal contractors.
• Equal pay. The Equal Pay Act, Title VII, the ADEA and the ADA all reach pay decisions (EEOC).

What should recruiters and staffing agencies hiring in West Virginia do?

1. Ask where the work happens. Any Maryland days, or any Virginia operation, means a posting with a range (and, for Maryland, a benefits description).
2. Write the offer letter to 21-5-9: rate of pay, payday, place or method of payment, and where the leave policies are.
3. Drop current-salary questions from scripts and forms used across the region, since Maryland and Virginia both bar them; see salary expectation questions.
4. Agencies: get the client's range in writing before posting tri-state roles. West Virginia's own agency rules are in staffing agency license in West Virginia and pay transparency for staffing agencies.
5. For remote roles, check every eligible state using pay transparency for remote jobs.

Example only, with example figures: a Martinsburg health system posts "Registered nurse, Martinsburg and Hagerstown clinics, $38.00 to $46.00 an hour, medical, dental, retirement match, tuition help." West Virginia requires none of that in the ad, but the Hagerstown days bring the posting under Maryland's law. The offer letter then adds the payday and pay method that 21-5-9 requires. Screening rules are in background check laws in West Virginia and E-Verify requirements in West Virginia.

West Virginia pay rules at a glance