Citing limited time in the remaining administration and desire to focus on “other priorities”, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council announced its withdrawal of the pending proposed rule requiring federal contractors disclose pay information in job postings and prohibiting federal contractors from seeking and considering information about job applicants’ compensation history.

The Pay Equity and Transparency in Federal Contracting rule was introduced in January 2024 and slated for finalization this month per the FAR’s regulatory calendar.

With the withdrawal of this rule federal contractors will no longer need to develop practices to comply with what seemed likely to be a burdensome pay transparency obligation, but there is still work to be done as contractors need to contend with the ever-growing patchwork of state pay transparency obligations. With the lack of a uniform federal rule on the subject, the task of advancing pay transparency will continue to fall solely on state and local governments.

As always, we will continue to monitor and report on new developments.