As summer begins to all but fade into the background, it is a good time to revisit legal compliance with state and federal requirements in the employment context. Massachusetts recently joined the growing wave of states to pass laws requiring employers to disclose certain salary and pay information following Governor Maura Healey’s signing on July 31, 2024 of the Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency (the Act). While some of the law’s requirements do not take effect until 2025, one provision, which takes effect on July 31, 2025, will require private Massachusetts employers with 25 or more employees to post (internally and externally) pay ranges for all job postings. A posting is defined as “any advertisement or job posting intended to recruit job applicants for a particular and specific employment position,” whether directly or through a third party. The pay range must provide the annual salary or hourly wage range that the employer reasonably, and in good faith, expects to pay at the time of posting, but stops short of requiring the employer to disclose bonuses, commissions, or benefits. Employers must provide the pay range to current employees if an employee is given a promotion, transferred, or on the employee’s request for the information.

While there is no private right of action to force employers to comply with supplying the wage information, employees may not be discriminated against, retaliated against, or terminated for seeking wage information under the Act. Any such action may trigger protections under Chapter 151B (which protects employees against a variety of actions including discrimination and retaliation for engaging in a protected activity) and other private right causes of actions. Only the Massachusetts Attorney General may enforce compliance with the requirements of the Act. A first offense for a violation will result in a warning, while subsequent violations will trigger civil fines. Intended not to be punitive, from the effective date through July 31, 2026, the Act provides the employer a two business day grace period to cure the violation once notified before a fine is imposed.

Additionally, effective February 1, 2025, the Act requires private employers with 100 or more employees in Massachusetts to submit annual pay information to the Secretary of State of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in accordance with existing federal obligations promulgated by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Employer Information Report (EEO-1, EEO-3, EEO-4, or EEO-5). The Commonwealth will take the aggregate data from the collective information and make it publicly available through the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

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