Massachusetts Passes Pay Transparency Law: Considerations for Employers

Effective July 31, 2025, employers with 25 or more employees in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts must disclose a salary range when posting a job and provide pay range information to certain employees and applicants. In passing H.4890, Massachusetts joins a growing number of states that have passed similar pay transparency requirements in recent years. The law also requires employers with 100 or more Massachusetts employees to submit equal employment opportunity and pay data to the Commonwealth annually for purposes of aggregated public reporting by the state. The Attorney General’s Office intends to conduct a public awareness campaign on these new rules.

PAY TRANSPARENCY REQUIREMENTS

The new law defines “pay range” as “the annual salary range or hourly wage range that the covered employer reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for such position” at the time of posting, and does not include bonuses or other benefits. Covered Massachusetts employers and their agents (including recruiters and placement companies) must disclose pay ranges in three circumstances:

• “in the posting of [a] position,”
• when current employees are offered a promotion or a transfer to a job with “different job responsibilities,” and
• upon request by an individual already holding a job position or to an applicant for such position.

For purposes of the law, “posting” is defined as “any advertisement or job posting intended to recruit job applicants for a particular and specific employment position, including, but not limited to, recruitment done directly by a covered employer or indirectly through a third party.”

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

The law also requires employers with at least 100 employees in Massachusetts during the prior calendar year to submit annual, industry-based “aggregate wage data reports” that include workplace “demographic and pay data categorized by race, ethnicity, sex and job category.” Employers can submit their federal EEO-I Employer Information Report to satisfy this requirement.

Employers must submit this data to the state secretary annually by February 1, starting in 2025. This data will be made available on the website of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workplace Development. These reports will not be considered public records as defined by the Massachusetts Public Records Law. 

COVERAGE UNDER THE LAW

The pay transparency requirements apply to public and private employers that employ 25 or more employees in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The reporting requirements apply to public and private employers that employ 100 or more employees in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts during the prior calendar year. As a result, employers who maintain out-of-state headquarters but employ the minimum number of employees in Massachusetts for each respective obligation would still be subject to the law.

ENFORCEMENT

The law does not contain a private cause of action. Rather, the attorney general has exclusive jurisdiction to enforce the provisions of this law through declaratory or injunctive relief should an employer fail to adhere to the pay transparency or reporting requirements. In addition, fees may be imposed for violations. Covered employees can be punished by a warning for the first offense, by a fine of not more than $500 for the second offense, and by a fine of not more than $1,000 for the third offense. Fourth (or further) violations would be subject to civil fines in increased amounts. Fines are not subject to trebling.

The law confirms that “an offense shall include 1 or more job postings for positions made by the same employer during a 48-hour period.” This clarification is helpful for those employees who post multiple job postings at one time as, under the law, there can be only one offense for each posting within 48 hours.

ANTI-RETALIATION

The law also makes it unlawful for employers to retaliate or discriminate against employees and job applicants because the employee or job applicant has:

• taken action to enforce the rights provided by the law,
• made a complaint to their employer, the employer’s agent, or the attorney general regarding an alleged violation of the law,
• instituted, or caused to be instituted, a proceeding under the law, or
• testified or is about to testify in any such proceeding.

NEXT STEPS FOR EMPLOYERS

In advance of the July 31, 2025 effective date, covered employers should review all job postings and advertisements to ensure these materials include the required pay information. Covered employers also should ensure that any recruiters or third-party agencies posting job opportunities on the employer’s behalf are prepared to comply with the law. Multistate employers should confirm compliance with pay transparency laws in other states and localities.

In addition, employers should review their filing process to ensure that they are prepared to submit the required forms to the state secretary including demographic and pay data by the February 1, 2025 deadline.