In 2021, Colorado became the first state to enact a law requiring employers to list a salary range and benefits on job postings. This expansive law applied to any employer with one or more workers based in Colorado, and it quickly gained traction. Some cities like Cincinnati, Ohio, and Jersey City, New Jersey, and states, including Connecticut, have enacted their own pay transparency laws. California, Rhode Island, and Washington also implemented laws at the start of 2023.
In Massachusetts, An Act Relative to Pay Equity (Bill S.2721), is one of several pay equity bills pending before the legislature. The proposed law focuses on a broad range of employee and wage data, including the number of employees by race, ethnicity, and gender that fall within certain job categories or roles, and their corresponding wage information. This bill, which is supported by the coalition Wage Equity Now, would require employers to publicly report wage data with the ultimate goal of achieving racial and gender wage equity.[1]
A companion bill that appears to be gaining traction in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency (HD 2814), would require any employer, public or private, with fifteen or more employees in the Commonwealth, to disclose a pay range for any posted position. The bill does not, however, include a private right of action for employees. Rather, the Massachusetts Attorney General is tasked with enforcing the law through warnings, financial penalties, and other sanctions.
Proponents of pay transparency argue that the move is essential to building trust with employees and closing the gender wage gap, while critics consider the difficulties of suggesting reasonable salary ranges for a job posting that may potentially target a multistate workforce spanning vastly different markets.
As nearly 1 in 4 U.S. workers now live in jurisdictions imposing some form of pay transparency requirements, employers must remain vigilant of changing laws and be prepared to comply with certain notice and disclosure obligations.
[1] Frequently Asked Questions, Wage Equity Now, https://wageequitynow.com/legislation/frequently-asked-questions/.
