Two recent lawsuits brought under Washington state’s salary range disclosure law offer insights into various possible outcomes under the statute as lawsuits begin playing out in court. In Atkinson v. Aaron’s LLC, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington dismissed a job applicant’s claim, finding that he lacked standing to sue because he had not suffered a concrete harm. By contrast, Yount v. Diamond Parking, Inc., pending in state court, resulted in a tentative settlement under which an employer agreed to pay $1.4 million to a class of almost 300 job applicants. Washington’s Equal Pay and Opportunities Act (EPOA), which took effect January 1, 2022, requires covered employers to disclose a job’s salary range and general benefits in every job advertisement.
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