Page 15 - BusinessWest February 17, 2025

The New Pay-transparency Law
What Massachusetts Employers Need to Know
BY AMELIA J. HOLSTROM, ESQ. AND JOHN S. GANNON, ESQ.
Last year, Massachusetts joined a growing list of states with pay-transparency laws when Gov. Maura Healey signed “An Act Relative to Salary
Range Transparency” into law. The law, which takes effect in various stages this year, will require many Massachusetts employers to disclose salary and pay ranges in all job postings and advertisements. The law also requires larger businesses to file certain wage data and information with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
According to the state Office of Labor and Work- force Development, the pay-transparency law is aimed at eliminating gender, racial, and other wage dispari- ties, as well as boosting employee loyalty and improv- ing morale. Here is what employers need to know.
Beginning Oct. 29, all businesses in the Common- wealth with 25 or more employees will be required
to:
• Disclose pay-range information in all job postings
and/or advertisements. This includes “any advertise- ment or job posting intended to recruit job applicants for a particular and specific employment position,” regardless of whether the employer recruits directly or utilizes a third party for such purposes;
• Disclose pay-range information to current employees who are transferred or promoted to a new position for the new position; and
• Upon request, provide pay-range information to
“Needless to say, if you have more than 100 employees in Massachusetts and are subject to EEO reporting requirements, and you have not filed your wage-data report with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you need to act fast.”
AMELIA HOLSTROM
JOHN GANNON
employees for the positions they hold and applicants for the positions to which they applied.
The law defines pay range as the “annual salary or hourly wage range that the covered employer reason- ably and in good faith expects to pay for that position at that time.” The statute also prohibits employers from retaliating against any employee, or applicant, who requests pay-range information. Employers who violate the new pay-transparency law can be fined
by the Massachusetts attorney general. Conceivably, violations could also trigger a larger inspection of the employer’s pay practices.
Larger Employers Required to File Wage Reports
In addition to the new pay disclosure obliga-
tions discussed above, employers with 100 or more employees in the Commonwealth who are subject to the federal EEO-1, EEO-3, EEO-4, or EEO-5 report- ing requirements will be required to file certain work- force demographic data with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on an annual or every-other-year basis. Currently, EEO reports contain workforce demo-
Report
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