Key Takeaways:
- On July 31, 2024, Governor Maura Healy signed into law wage equity legislation that creates new disclosure requirements for Massachusetts-based employers.
- This new law requires Massachusetts employers with 25 or more employees to provide salary ranges for posted job openings, to disclose the salary range of a position to an employee who is offered a promotion or transfer, and, if requested, to provide the salary range to employees who already hold the position or are applying for it.
- Massachusetts employers with 100 or more employees, who are already subject to federal EEO data report filing requirements, will also be required to report wage data to the state secretary by submitting a copy of its EEO data report.
- The new law is set to go into effect one year from the date of Governor Healy’s signature, on July 31, 2025, with employer submissions of EEO data reports to occur by February 1, 2025.
On July 31, 2024, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy, in an effort to increase transparency in pay, signed into law wage equity legislation that imposes new disclosure requirements on Massachusetts-based employers. The legislation, An Act relative to salary range transparency (H.4890), builds on and updates Massachusetts’s Equal Pay Act by requiring public and private employers with 25 or more employees to provide salary ranges for posted job openings. Employers are also required to disclose the salary range of a position to an employee who is offered a promotion or transfer and, if requested, are required to provide the salary range to employees who already hold the position or are applying for it.
The new law also imposes important new data reporting requirements on employers. Massachusetts employers with 100 or more employees, who are already subject to federal EEO data report filing requirements, will need to report wage data to the state secretary by submitting a copy of its EEO data report. This information will thereafter be submitted by the state secretary to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
Violations of the law will be enforced by the Attorney General’s Office. Employers who do not comply with the law will be punished by a warning for the first offense, by a fine of not more than $500 for the second offense, and by a fine of not more than $1,000 for the third offense. For offenses beyond the third offense, the Attorney General’s Office may issue civil citations. Employees who take action to enforce their rights under the law or who file a complaint are also protected from retaliation or discrimination by an employer. However, the new law does not provide employees with a private right of action against their employers.
With the law set to go into effect on July 31, 2025, Massachusetts employers should use the next year to begin gathering salary range information for the positions within their organization so that they can comply with these new requirements. Further, employers should confirm that they are meeting their EEO data report filing requirements to guarantee that the required information is collected in advance of the filing deadline.
