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Pay Transparency Requirements Effective in Massachusetts in 2025
Print PDFMassachusetts has officially joined the growing list of states requiring employers to include salary ranges in job postings—but not until 2025.
On July 31, 2024, Governor Maura Healey signed Bill H. 4890, “An Act relative to salary range transparency”, which contains requirements for employers to disclose pay ranges to applicants and current employees as well as mandatory demographic reporting obligations for larger employers. However, these requirements do not go into effect until February 2025 (reporting obligations) and July 31, 2025 (job postings).
Massachusetts joins California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington (all states with existing or newly passed pay transparency legislation). Maine, Michigan, and New Jersey also have pending pay transparency bills. Only California and Illinois, however, have similar demographic reporting requirements.
Beginning February 1, 2025 and annually thereafter, most employers with 100 or more employees must submit an Equal Employment Opportunity (“EEO”) data report that includes demographic and pay data categorized by race, ethnicity, sex, and job categories. The obligation can be satisfied by submitting a completed federal EEO-1 Employer Information Report. Notably, individual reports will not be considered “public records” subject to disclosure, but aggregated data will be published by the Massachusetts Department of Labor by July of each year.
Beginning July 31, 2025, private employers with 25 or more employees in Massachusetts must disclose the annual salary or hourly wage range that the employer “reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for such position” in each job posting. This includes any job posting for a specific position, whether posted by the employer or a third party. In addition, employers will be required to provide the pay range for a position to a current employee who is offered a promotion or transfers to a new position with different job responsibilities. Finally, employers must provide a pay range at any time upon request to current employees regarding their current position or applicants for such position.
Unlike a number of other states, Massachusetts’ law does not require job postings to include information about other types of compensation, such as bonuses or equity grants, or benefits offered. Nor does the law differentiate between postings for positions that can only be performed in the Commonwealth versus remotely or in offices in other states. It is unclear how the threshold “25 or more employees in the Commonwealth” should be calculated, for example, when considering hybrid or commuting employees.
The pay transparency law does not contain a private right of action. Only the Attorney General’s office can enforce the law by seeking injunctive or declaratory relief and imposing warnings and fines, which range from a warning for a first violation, $500 for a second violation, and between $7,000 and $25,000 for multiple violations.
While the requirements of this new legislation do not go into effect for some time, employers should begin to think about compliance—particularly employers who have not yet developed pay ranges for each position or who have not had to submit a federal EEO-1 report.
This advisory was prepared by Nutter’s Labor, Employment and Benefits practice group. For more information, please contact any member of the LEB group or your Nutter attorney at 617.439.2000.
This advisory is for information purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any specific facts or circumstances. Under the rules of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, this material may be considered as advertising.
