Marketing Agency in Cincinnati: Hiring Campaigns That Never Ask About Past Pay

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

The apply form behind a new job ad has a required field labeled Current salary, and the screening call script asks the same question a second time. In Cincinnati, Chapter 804 of the Municipal Code makes asking about an applicant’s salary history an unlawful discriminatory practice for covered employers and for their agents. A marketing agency in Cincinnati that writes hiring campaigns reads that chapter before it writes the first headline. Progression is based in New York, runs Cincinnati campaigns remotely, and offers on-site sessions on request.

A required field labeled Current salary

A distribution company posts a warehouse lead role. The apply form that sits behind the ad has a required field, and the field is labeled Current salary. The screening call script has the same question in its second line.

Both lines are ordinary. They were copied from older hiring forms that nobody questioned. In Cincinnati they are the kind of inquiry that subdivision 804-03(a) names, and the employer that posted the ad may be covered by the chapter.

• The form field asks for current pay.
• The call script asks for last pay.
• The campaign is live before anyone asks whether the lines are allowed.
• The fix is a rewrite of two lines, made before launch.

What Chapter 804 asks of a marketing agency in Cincinnati

Chapter 804 of the Cincinnati Municipal Code is titled “Prohibited Salary History Inquiry and Use.” It was ordained by Ordinance No. 83-2019, Cincinnati City Council, and this page states it as Council passed it. For the current codified text, see the City’s municipal code or ask counsel.

Subdivision 804-03(a) makes four things an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer or its agent: to inquire about an applicant’s salary history, to screen applicants on current or prior pay, benefits or compensation, including minimum or maximum criteria, to rely on salary history in deciding whether to offer a job or in setting pay during hiring, and to refuse to hire or retaliate against an applicant for not disclosing it.

Because the chapter speaks of an employer or its agent, the people who write and run the hiring campaign should read it too. Whether a given agency is an agent for the chapter is a question for counsel.

What counts as salary history?

The chapter says an applicant’s current or prior wage, benefits or other compensation. Objective measures of productivity, such as revenue, sales or other production reports, are not salary history.

What counts as an inquiry?

Any question or statement to the applicant, or to the applicant’s current or prior employers or their employees or agents, in writing or otherwise, made to obtain salary history. A search of publicly available records for that purpose counts too.

The copy deck, marked line by line

Marketing agencies in Cincinnati that write hiring campaigns can run the same test on any funnel. Take every line an applicant reads or hears, and mark it keep, rewrite or cut. The lines below are hypothetical.

Lines an applicant reads

The ad, the landing page and the form are where most of the cuts fall. A pay line that gives the range is fine. A field that asks for current pay is not.

Lines an applicant hears

A script is easier to get wrong than a form because it grows over time. Recruiters add a friendly pay question, and it quietly becomes the standard opener. Replace it with a question about expectations.

Lines that arrive after an offer

The offer email should not mention what the applicant earns now. After a conditional offer, an employer must give the position’s pay scale on reasonable request, under 804-03(c), so the email says it is available.

Budget for a hiring campaign

A Cincinnati marketing company prices a hiring campaign by its parts: the ads, the career page, the apply flow and the scripts. Job board and social placements are quoted by the seller. Pricing depends on scope and is set in the written proposal.

Our recruitment marketing agency page covers the channels that hiring ads run on, and our recruitment agency marketing page is for the agencies that place candidates.

• Ask for the ad budget and the production budget on separate lines.
• Ask what rewriting the apply form and scripts adds to the scope.
• Ask who keeps the version archive.
• Ask when the proposal’s prices stop applying.

Which employers and applicants Chapter 804 reaches

Three definitions set the edges. They come from subdivisions 804-01(b), (c) and (d), and counsel should be asked about any employer near a line.

An employer with fourteen people in the city one month and sixteen the next is the kind of case where counsel decides. The safe campaign is the one that never asks.

• List how many people the employer pays in the City.
• List roles that are contracted work and roles that are not.
• Ask whether an employment agency is involved in the hiring.
• Write one campaign that works for every case.

Eight situations the prohibition leaves out

Subdivision 804-03(d) lists eight situations where the prohibitions in 804-03 do not apply. They are narrow, and a campaign should not depend on them.

Exception (3) covers a disclosure that is voluntary and unprompted. A question from the recruiter is a prompt, so the script should stay with expectations.

Ranges in the ad, expectations on the call

Subdivision 804-01(e) says that informing the applicant about the position’s proposed or anticipated salary or salary range is not an inquiry. Subdivision 804-03(b) adds that an employer may discuss the applicant’s expectations about salary, benefits and other compensation, including unvested equity or deferred compensation the applicant would forfeit by resigning, without asking about history.

The plain advice is to lead with the range and ask what the applicant is looking for. The ad states the range, the call confirms it, and the offer sits inside it.

Should the ad show the range?

Yes. Stating the range is not an inquiry under 804-01(e), and it saves both sides a call that would not have worked.

What can a recruiter ask on the call?

What pay and benefits the applicant is looking for. A recruiter may also talk about forfeited equity or deferred pay without asking what the applicant earns now.

The pay scale request after a conditional offer

Subdivision 804-03(c) says that an employer, upon reasonable request, shall provide the pay scale for a position to an applicant who has received a conditional offer of employment.

The offer email can tell the applicant that the pay scale is available on request, and the recruiter should have it ready. Answer each request quickly and in writing.

Who answers the request?

Whoever sent the offer. The recruiter should know where the pay scale lives and how long an answer is expected to take.

• Keep the pay scale for each role in one document.
• Name one person who answers pay scale requests.
• Link the document to the offer email through a request address.
• Answer requests in writing.
• Store each answer beside the offer it belongs to.
• Date every answer.

A Cincinnati marketing agency beyond the job post

A Cincinnati marketing agency that builds the employer brand video, the career page, the retargeting audience and the referral campaign applies the same read to each. Every form, chatbot and call script in the funnel gets the same check.

A chatbot is the easy one to miss. A friendly assistant that greets visitors and asks about experience can drift into pay. Review its prompts, its saved answers and any follow-up emails. Our recruitment marketing page covers the channels these campaigns run on.

• Read every chatbot prompt before launch.
• Review retargeting copy for pay language.
• Check referral program forms for salary fields.
• Check the employer brand video’s call to action.
• Check the thank you page and the confirmation email.

Two years to file, so keep every version

Under 804-05, an applicant has a private cause of action against the employer, employment agency, or an employee or agent of either, for compensatory damages, reasonable attorney’s fees, costs and legal and equitable relief. An action must be commenced within two years after the cause of action accrued.

That puts a premium on records. Keep dated copies of each ad, form and script version, together with the date it went live and the date it was replaced. Legal questions go to counsel.

What should the archive hold?

The line as it ran, the page or form it ran on, the date it went live, the date it was replaced and the name of the person who approved it.

• Date every version when it goes live.
• Save a screenshot of every form field the day it launches.
• Save the full text of each call script.
• Keep the old version when a new one replaces it.
• Record who approved each change.
• Keep the archive for at least two years, or as long as counsel advises.

The hiring campaign brief

Six items go into the brief before a hiring campaign is written. It travels with the campaign, so every recruiter can see which lines are allowed. Our digital marketing services page covers the wider work.

For a nearby market page, see our web design in Cincinnati page.

Frequently asked questions