In the US, employers can typically post broad salary ranges for open roles while still complying with many of the pay transparency laws now in effect across the country.

But doing so may narrow companies’ applicant pools and hinder their ability to attract diverse talent, recent research from Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) School suggests.

The research, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, finds women are more likely to apply for jobs with narrower salary ranges than men. This in turn affects their propensity to negotiate, and ultimately, their salary potential.

Such findings run counter to the overall goal of pay transparency legislation, which is to close gender pay gaps. To ensure that broad ranges don’t deter certain applicants from applying, HR teams should provide additional context about how compensation is determined within pay ranges, Alice Lee, an assistant professor at Cornell’s ILR School, told HR Brew via email.

For more on the effect broad pay ranges can have on recruitment, keep reading here.—CV

Even as some companies have abandoned parental leave and well-being benefits that support a diverse workforce, DEI reporting appears to have remained a priority, at least in internal documents.

That’s according to the Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI), a new Thomson Reuters analysis of roughly 3,000 global companies that looked at the topics companies covered in internal documents, as well as key performance indicators (KPIs) for executive pay and changes in benefits and other priorities.

Shifting benefits priorities. Perhaps one of the more concerning data points from the report indicates that fewer companies have public policies on discrimination and harassment than they did in previous years. In 2020, 94% of companies had public policies on these issues, compared to just 70% in 2025. Shared parental leave also appears to have declined, mainly in the US, where there are no federally mandated parental leave policies. A record 77% of respondents offered parental leave in 2020, but that number fell to 22% in 2025.

DEI remains in documents. Since 2024, several companies in the US have publicly announced that they will no longer tie DEI goals to executive pay. But the report found that one in five companies globally still use DEI as an executive pay performance metric.

For more on the findings, keep reading here.—KP

President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order aimed at improving access to retirement savings for millions of Americans who lack such benefits through their jobs.

The order, which the president first pitched at February’s State of the Union, directs the Treasury Department to launch a website to help individuals without employer-sponsored retirement plans access “high-quality, low-cost [Individual Retirement Accounts].” This website, which would be called TrumpIRA.gov, should launch by Jan. 1, 2027.

Additionally, the order would encourage certain low- and middle-income Americans to take advantage of a $1,000 savings match available from the federal government annually when they contribute to an IRA.

While retirement advocates applauded the move, they said meaningful improvements in Americans’ overall retirement security will require additional action by Congress, as well.

For more on the retirement savings gap, keep reading here.—CV

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