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Massachusetts Joins the Pay Transparency Band Wagon

August 2, 2024 by

The Law: This week, Massachusetts became the 11th state to mandate pay transparency by requiring employers to disclose salary ranges. H.B. 4890. The bill also mandates reporting pay data  for certain employers. Here is a brief summary of what you need to know about this law:

  • The law affects employers with 25+ employees;
  • Effective date is July 31, 2025, for the pay transparency requirements;
  • Reporting requirements go into effect in February 2025, for employers with at least 100 employees who are subject to federal EEO reporting;
  • There is no private cause of action for violations except under the anti-retaliation provisions of the law;
  • The law specifies that Wage Act treble damages are not available to plaintiffs;
  • The law is enforced by the AG and can include injunctive relief. First offenses will result in a warning, and subsequent offenses will result in fines starting at $500 per posting. A “posting” covers all job postings made in a 48 hour period, so if employers violate the law by posting several jobs at once, that should result in only one offense.

What you should do now:  A little less than a year from now, your job postings will have salary ranges and your employees will start to learn more about pay in your company. You have time now, if needed, to establish a wage scale or salaries for all positions. This is a good time to take a look at your pay practices before they become public. The best fixed fee service we offer to prepare for this law is our Pay Equity Audit . This service provides a front-end evaluation audit of your current wage differentials by our attorneys. You provide the data and we do the heavy lifting: a report of the analysis, recommendations, and an opinion, which creates an affirmative defense under state law. Check out this flow chart  to better understand how the Audit works.

We can help! Contact us about the best way forward for. your workplace under this sweeping law. Day in and day out, we field your questions on workplace law and keep up with the changes. So you can stick to business.