Irreal readers are, I’m sure, smarter than the average politico so they would know better than to pass a law like this Colorado bill without considering the consequences. On its face, the law doesn’t seem controversial; it’s just a little bolt tightening on the equal pay for equal work legislative framework. However, the law contains this proviso:
(2) AN EMPLOYER SHALL DISCLOSE IN EACH POSTING FOR EACH JOB OPENING THE HOURLY OR SALARY COMPENSATION, OR A RANGE OF THE HOURLY OR SALARY COMPENSATION, AND A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ALL OF THE BENEFITS AND OTHER COMPENSATION TO BE OFFERED TO THE HIRED APPLICANT.
What could go wrong? It turns out that some employers looking for remote workers didn’t want to disclose the salary range they had in mind so they simply said that Coloradans need not apply. The point here is not whether you think the proviso is good or bad, merely that it had an easily foreseeable consequence that the bill’s authors should have anticipated.
As with the last time Irreal considered unintended consequences, the problem is that those pushing for and passing this legislation failed to see how easily the intended targets of their law could bypass it. The French rich simply left France; Employers simply didn’t make their jobs available to Coloradans. In both cases, those that the laws were ostensibly meant to help were harmed instead.
Sadly, this sort of thing happens all the time. The unintended consequences are so easy to foresee that a cynic might conclude that those responsible are either incompetent or simply don’t care. Here’s a little test—or exercise, if you prefer—to see how well you’ve absorbed this lesson: what do you think will be the result of this?