On July 31, 2024, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed into legislation a invoice that makes Massachusetts the 11th state to mandate pay transparency, becoming a member of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington.
Employers Should Present Pay Info
Efficient July 31, 2025, Massachusetts employers with 25 or extra workers might be required to offer the next particular pay data to present and potential workers:
- All job postings should embody the pay vary the employer “moderately and in good religion” expects to pay for the place. This rule applies to any commercial or job posting supposed to recruit job candidates for a selected and particular employment place, whether or not immediately or by a 3rd occasion.
- Present workers who obtain a promotion or switch right into a place with new duties have to be supplied with the pay vary for the brand new place.
- Upon request, present workers who maintain a selected place, in addition to these making use of for a selected place, have to be supplied with the pay vary of the place.
The pay ranges famous above needn’t embody fee, bonus, or different incentive data. Info pertaining to employment advantages additionally needn’t be offered.
Employers Should Submit Pay Information Reviews
Along with offering pay data, efficient February 1, 2025, employers with at the least 100 workers which are already topic to federal EEO reporting necessities will even need to submit their EEO knowledge stories to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The stories should embody demographic data and pay knowledge for all workers, categorized by race, ethnicity, intercourse, and job class.
Retaliation Is Prohibited
The brand new legislation prohibits employers from retaliating towards candidates or workers who request pay data or allege violations of the statute. The Massachusetts Legal professional Common’s workplace will maintain unique jurisdiction to implement the legislation, that means there is not going to be a non-public proper of motion for workers. Violations of the legislation will end in potential fines, starting with a easy warning and escalating based mostly on repeated offenses.
The way to Comply With the New Regulation
For employers, this legislation necessitates a evaluation of current and future job postings, and a doable overhaul of wage reporting practices. Employers in Massachusetts might want to take into account acceptable pay ranges for his or her job positions and talk these transparently to keep away from any doable surprises to workers. Employers needs to be notably aware of the February 1, 2025 efficient date to submit pay knowledge stories to the state, given the rest of the legislation’s provisions don’t go into impact till July 31, 2025.
The brand new legislation additionally serves as a reminder to employers of Massachusetts’ Equal Pay Act, which was enacted in 2018 and prohibits variations in worker pay for comparable work. The EPA supplies a whole protection for any employer that, throughout the earlier three years and earlier than an motion is filed towards it, has performed a great religion, affordable self-evaluation of its pay practices. Sheppard Mullin commonly conducts audits for its purchasers in order that they continue to be in compliance with the EPA and might benefit from the EPA’s full protection provision. These audits might be equally useful in complying with Massachusetts’ new pay transparency legislation. Please contact us to debate a doable audit and to make sure your job postings, pay ranges, and worker knowledge reporting adjust to the brand new legislation.