Massachusetts employers with 25 or more workers will soon be required to include pay ranges in all job postings under a new state law aimed at increasing salary transparency.
The Commonwealth joined the wave of states and local governments enacting such mandates on July 31, 2024, when Gov. Maura T. Healey signed into law An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency.
Disclosure Requirements
Effective July 31, 2025, public and private employers with 25 or more employees must include a pay range in every job posting. “Pay range” is defined as the salary or hourly wage the employer in “good faith” expects to pay the employee. This requirement extends to third parties posting job advertisements on behalf of employers.
Additionally, the law requires employers to disclose pay ranges to current employees receiving promotions, applying for new positions or transferring within the company. Employers must also disclose the pay range for an employee’s current position if the employee requests it. Employees are not entitled to know the pay ranges of positions they do not hold or for which they are not applying.
Employers may not discharge, retaliate or discriminate against employees or applicants for exercising their rights under the law, making a complaint about a violation of the law, instituting a proceeding under the law or testifying in such a proceeding.
Requirements for Larger Businesses
Businesses with 100 or more employees — those that are subject annually to federal EEO-1 reporting — must report wage data to the Commonwealth under the new law. Unions, local government employers and elementary and secondary school employers with different EEO reporting deadlines must file the reports every other year. While the reports are not public record, the aggregated wage and workforce data will be posted by the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development on its website.
In what may come as a relief to employers, the law does not provide for a private right of action and does not carry triple damages like other Massachusetts wage laws. However, employers should take the law seriously because the attorney general can assess fines for violations. Penalties that can be imposed include:
- A warning for the first offense.
- A fine up to $500 for the second offense.
- A fine up to $1000 for the third offense.
- A fine between $7,500 and $25,000 for fourth and subsequent offenses.
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