These laws were motivated, in part, by stubbornly persistent gender and racial pay gapsbut also by the pragmatic recognition that wages and salary information were only accessible to companies via salary benchmarking services, and to the lucky individuals blessed with well-positioned friends.

The hope was that transparency would reduceor better yet, eliminatethese well-documented market inefficiencies that have consequences for workers lifetime earnings.

By most evidence, the hope was justified. Early research on the effects of pay transparency laws, as well as research on similar rules in other countries, suggest that they often lead to meaningful reductions in gender pay gaps and level the playing field for job candidates.

Despite the occasional social media screenshot of a comically wide band or anecdote of a company deciding not to consider candidates in a state with pay transparency rules, these stories attract attention precisely because they are the exception. The overwhelming majority of companies posting job listings in pay transparency states are complying with the rules.

Since its founding nearly 15 years ago, Glassdoor has been at the forefront of making salary information more broadly available to those who dont have the right connections. We have witnessed firsthand the magic of pay transparencybut we are also aware that its no miracle pill for all the ills of the labor market. There are many reasons to be hopeful about the new wave of pay transparency lawsand important reasons to be vigilant of their unintended consequences.

To understand the new risks and emerging challenges, it is helpful to understand recent enthusiasm for pay transparency in the context of a longer lineage of open information laws dating back nearly a century: Public company financials in the 1930s, food ingredients and nutrition in the 1960s (expanded in the 1990s), donations to federal election campaigns and mortgage lending practices in the 1970s, and public school performance in the 2000s, among many others.

While at the onset, many of these new disclosure milestones had their share of critics, today, its hard to imagine a functioning stock market where investors could not access critical company information or where consumers are forced to wonder what ingredients (and potential allergens) may be lurking in their food.

The professionals who are responsible for implementing and grappling with new pay transparency laws on the frontlines seem cautiously hopeful about their potential. More than half (55%) of senior people leaders employed at some of Glassdoors Best Places to Work 2023 disagree or strongly disagree with the suggestion that greater pay transparency will make it harder to retain talent, and only a third (34%) agree or strongly agree that open roles with salary information or pay bands attract a higher quality applicant pool. In general, they view pay transparency as a best practice regardless of whether it is legally required.

In the past, pay transparency worked in part because it was a signal for a broader set of investments in a good employee experience: Companies that shared pay ranges were likely signaling to job seekers that they cared more broadly about fairness and transparency with their employees.

That wont necessarily be the case moving forward. Job seekers are going to have to look for new signals that indicate an employer is genuinely vested in compensatingand treatingtheir teams equitably. For employers seeking to distinguish themselves in the ever-competitive market for talent, they will have to discover new ways to communicate that virtue.

While sunlight may be the best disinfectant, funk inevitably blooms in the shifting shadows. Requiring transparency can shift rather than eliminate the market dysfunction it aims to fix. Inequities could emerge on more difficult-to-measure dimensions such as benefits use, career advancement, and employee experience. Glassdoor research found thatbeyond paymen and women report meaningfully different day-to-day experiences at nearly a fifth of companies. We also identified meaningful experience gaps across race/ethnic groups at nearly a third of companies. We are only beginning to discern the contours of the workplace equity challenges in these emerging areas that have long been in the shadow of pay.

When access to information depends on network, connections, or the ability to pay to play, access to information disproportionately benefits insiders and perpetuates long-standing inequalities. The new wave of pay transparency laws aims to tackle these age-old problemsand a growing body of evidence suggests they are doing exactly that. We can be both hopeful and open-eyed about where it will lead us.

Aaron Terrazas is chief economist at Glassdoor.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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The global battle for crypto talent and investment is shifting away from the U.S., favoring more welcoming shores. Fortunately, its not too latethough it will be soonfor the U.S. to regain its footing, find a way to embrace crypto, and retake the lead in the race for developer talent and venture capital investment.

Right now, the U.S. is struggling to create a legal regime that can foster crypto innovation, while also safeguarding consumers and financial stability. Since the collapse of FTX, the Securities and Exchange Commission has taken an antagonistic view of the crypto industry, doubling down on enforcement actions and threatening the existence of publicly traded companies. The Biden administration is also targeting crypto, singling out the industry for a proposed 30% tax on energy use by crypto-mining operations. The mood is souring in the U.S., and many crypto entrepreneurs are hoping for a change in political winds following the 2024 elections.

In contrast, the EU has taken a more proactive approach, seeking to create a regulatory environment that fosters growth and technological advancements. The recently ratified Markets in Crypto Assets, or MiCA, gives the European crypto industry a workable licensing regime. Its not perfect, and it doesnt address NFTs or DeFi, but its at least a batch of laws that spells out the rules of the road so EU companies and entrepreneurs dont need to guess how the bloc intends to deal with their industry. 

The U.S. is now seeing a migration of developer talent to more crypto-friendly jurisdictions. According to the venture capital firm Electric Capital, the U.S. has lost 2% of its share of the blockchain developer market per year for the last five yearssinking to 29% market share. The share of developers in the EU is now also 29%parity for the first time. Part of this reflects the increasingly global nature of the crypto industry, which permits talented developers to live wherever they like. But its also undeniable that the regulatory situation in the U.S. is driving this shift.

The perceived regulatory advantages in the EU have also attracted a surge of VC investment in the regions crypto startups. Venture capitalists are actively seeking opportunities in countries with settled regulatory frameworks. In the first quarter of 2023, the EU and the U.K. surged past the U.S. in terms of total VC investment in crypto. This shift coincides with the passage of the MiCA framework, giving the EU two feathers in its crypto cap. VC funding is, of course, trend-driven, and this recent shift is not necessarily a marker of a permanent change in investment thesis.

But while the state of affairs in the U.S. is grim right now, all is not lost. 

The next 12 to 18 months will determine if the EU can cement its lead in crypto VC investment and in the battle for developer talent. During this period, EU bureaucrats will work out how to implement the MiCA reforms, and research will continue on how to regulate NFTs and DeFi.

That time period also coincides with the run up to the 2024 elections in the U.S., a time when many regulatory agency heads step down or are reshuffled within the government.

Its possible that these and other political developments in the U.S. will lead the federal government to view crypto in a more enlightened fashion. What is clear now is that the alarm bells are ringing for cryptos future in the U.S. Other countries have seized this opportunity as America clamps down, with potential long-term consequences industry across the globe.

Kristin Smith is executive director of the Blockchain Association. The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

Some travelers say they will settle for fewer trips than they hoped to take, or they will drive instead of fly. Others are finding different money-saving sacrifices.

Stephanie Hanrahan thought shed save money by planning ahead for her daughters birthday trip to Disney World in Florida. Instead, it ended up costing the same as the Dallas-area familys trip for four to California last summer, so now her husband and son are staying home.

We just had to grit our teeth, said Hanrahan, a writer and speaker who also runs a nonprofit, as she and daughter Campbell waited for their flight last week at Dallas Love Field.

The number of people going through U.S. airports hit pandemic-era highs last weekend, and those records are almost certain to be broken over the Memorial Day holiday.

AAA predicts that 37 million Americans will drive at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) from home this weekend, an increase of more than 2 million from Memorial Day last year but still below pre-pandemic numbers in 2019. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 10 million travelers between Friday and Monday, a 14% increase over the holiday in 2022 and slightly more than in 2019.

With more travel comes more expense. The average rate for a U.S. hotel room last week was $157 a night, up from $150 in the same week last year, according to hotel data provider STR. And the average daily rate for other short-term rentals such as Airbnb and Vrbo rose to $316 last month, up 1.4% from a year ago, according to AirDNA, which tracks the industry.

There is a bit of good news for drivers, however: The national average for a gallon of regular was $3.56 at midweek, down from $4.60 at this time last year, according to AAA. Renting a car is also cheaper than a year ago, when some popular destinations ran out of vehicles. Travel company Expedia said larger inventories let the companies rent more cars at lower prices.

For air travelers, airline industry officials say carriers have fixed problems that contributed to a surge in flight cancellations and delays last summer, when 52,000 flights were nixed from June through August. Airlines have hired about 30,000 workers since then, including thousands of pilots, and they are using bigger planes to reduce flights but not the number of seats.

I dont have the hubris to tell you exactly how the summer is going to go, but we have prepared and we have a robust plan for it, said Andrew Watterson, chief operating officer at Southwest Airline, which struggled at times over the summer of 2022 and suffered an epic meltdown around Christmas, canceling nearly 17,000 flights.

David Seymour, the chief operating officer of American Airlines, said his staff has fine-tuned a system it uses to predict the impact of storms on major airports and devise a plan for recovering from disruptions. He said it is reducing cancellations.

Its going to be a solid summer for us, Seymour said.

In a report released last month, the Government Accountability Office blamed airlines for an increase in flight cancellations as travel recovered from the pandemic. It also said airlines are taking longer to recover from disruptions such as storms.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the government will hold airlines responsible to treat passengers fairly when the carriers cause cancellations or long delays. But just like the airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration the agency that manages the nations air traffic has had its own staffing shortages and occasional technology breakdowns that have snarled air travel.

The FAA resorted to nudging airlines to reduce flights in the New York City area this summer, and it opened new flight paths over the East Coast to reduce bottlenecks.

Its going to be an ordeal its always an ordeal to travel in the summer, said travel analyst Henry Harteveldt, but the airlines have done a lot to improve their ability to operate well this summer.

Airlines hope that limiting the number of flights will improve reliability and reduce delays. So far, it seems to be working. About one in every 70 U.S. flights have been canceled this year half the rate of a year ago and lower than in 2019.

Limiting the number of flights also keeps prices above pre-pandemic levels.

A provider of travel data, Hopper, predicts that average domestic airfares will peak next month at $328 for a round-trip ticket, which is down from last summers record of $400 but 4% higher than in 2019.

There are some last-minute deals on domestic flights, Hopper found, but international fares are their highest in more than five years, with prices to Europe up 50% from a year ago.

The same thing is happening within Europe, as airlines hold the line on capacity at a time of strong travel demand.

There is no expectation of seeing cheaper fares in Europe in the next seven or eight months, says John Grant, an analyst for OAG, a U.K.-based travel-data provider.

For the travel industry, the big question is how long consumers can keep paying for airline tickets and accommodations while they try to deal with stubborn high inflation, news about layoffs and bank failures, and fear of a recession.

Industry executives say consumers are favoring the experience of travel over other types of spending, but some analysts see cracks in the strong demand for travel that began in early 2022.

Bank of America analysts say data from their credit and debit card customers showed a slowdown in spending in April, as card use fell below year-before levels for the first time since February 2021. They say spending on hotels, which rebounded relatively early from the pandemic, dipped this spring, while the late-recovering cruise industry is still steaming ahead card spending on cruises rose 37% last month, although from very low levels a year ago.

Travel remains a bright spot relative to other sectors, but were also seeing signs of moderation in the travel space, said Anna Zhou, an economist for the bank.