Coverage thresholds, what has to be disclosed and filed, by when, and what happens if it isn’t — for employers with people in Maryland.
Maryland has no employer size threshold at all, and a three-year recordkeeping requirement attached to every single posting. Together those two facts make it administratively heavier than states with far larger penalties.
Effective 1 October 2024. No size threshold. Covers state, county and municipal government, nonprofits, churches, and household employers.
The obligation that generates the most work, and the one most often missed.
The Act applies to any employer “engaged in a business, industry, profession, trade, or other enterprise in Maryland.” MD DOL’s FAQ confirms expressly that there is no size threshold, and that nonprofits, churches, and household employers are covered, as are State, county and municipal government.
Geographic reach extends to out-of-state employers recruiting Maryland-based remote workers, and to any position reporting to a Maryland supervisor, office or worksite.
Most states with pay transparency laws impose no posting-level record retention. Maryland requires a record of compliance for each posting, retained for three years after the role is filled — or three years from initial posting where it never is.
For an employer running a few hundred requisitions a year that is a filing system, not a checkbox. It also has a useful side effect: an employer who genuinely maintains it can evidence good faith on the range far more easily than one who cannot produce the posting at all.
Maryland’s salary history ban came in with 2020 HB 123, effective 1 October 2020, and sits at the same code section. Employers may not request or seek an applicant’s wage history — orally, in writing, directly, or from a current or former employer — or rely on wage history to screen, consider, or set pay.
There is one narrow exception: after an initial offer with compensation has been made, an employer may rely on voluntarily provided wage history to support a higher offer, provided doing so does not create an unlawful pay differential. That proviso does real work — a voluntary disclosure that would push one person above comparable colleagues is not a safe harbour.
Enforcement sits with the Commissioner of Labor and Industry and there is no private right of action. Penalties escalate per affected employee or applicant: a compliance letter for the first violation, up to $300 for the second, and up to $600 for each subsequent violation within three years of a prior determination. The Commissioner weighs gravity, employer size, good faith, and history.
Those figures are small next to California’s or DC’s. The exposure in Maryland is administrative rather than financial — and, as everywhere, in what the published ranges reveal about the pay structure underneath them.
We support Maryland employers on the compensation side of this — pay equity analysis, range architecture, and how executive pay reads inside a filing or a published range. We are not attorneys and this page is not legal advice; the filings themselves are usually handled with employment counsel.
For advisory work in the region, see our Baltimore executive compensation page.
No. It applies to any employer engaged in a business, industry, profession, trade or other enterprise in Maryland, including State, county and municipal government, nonprofits, churches and household employers. It also reaches out-of-state employers recruiting Maryland-based remote workers, and roles reporting to a Maryland supervisor, office or worksite.
Three years after the position is filled, or three years from the date of initial posting if the position is never filled. The requirement is per posting, and MD DOL guidance is to retain copies of the actual postings. Few other states impose a posting-level retention obligation, and for a high-volume recruiter this is the heaviest part of Maryland compliance.
Generally yes, where the role could be performed in Maryland or reports into a Maryland supervisor, office or worksite. The specifics vary — some states test on where the work is performed, others on the reporting line, and several catch out-of-state employers recruiting locally-based remote staff. Check the coverage language above against your own arrangements rather than assuming a headquarters test.
No. It is a compensation practitioner's summary of published requirements, current as at July 2026, intended to help you scope the compensation work these obligations create. Pay legislation in this area has been amended frequently and several provisions carry sunset dates. Confirm current requirements with employment counsel before acting.
Pay equity analysis and range architecture, sequenced so findings can be acted on rather than merely disclosed.
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