Mass. Legislature passes wage equity legislation

Bill boosts salary transparency, tackles unfair compensation for women and people of color

On July 24, 2024, The Massachusetts Legislature took a strong step towards closing the gender and racial wage gap in the Commonwealth by enacting An Act relative to salary range transparency. The legislation requires employers with 25 or more employees to disclose a salary range when posting a position and protects an employee’s right to ask their employer for the salary range for their position when applying for a job or seeking a promotion. On July 31, Governor Maura Healey signed the Act into law as Chapter 141 of the Acts of 2024.

Chapter 141 makes Massachusetts the 11th state to mandate pay transparency by requiring employers to disclose salary ranges, according to the National Women’s Law Center. The law builds on the Legislature’s 2016 passage of the Massachusetts Equal Pay Act, which prohibited wage discrimination based on gender and brought long-sought fairness and equality to workplaces in the Commonwealth.

“With the passage of this legislation, Massachusetts is now one step closer to ensuring equal pay for equal work,” said House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano (D-Quincy). “Pay transparency will not only make our workplaces more equitable, it will also make Massachusetts more competitive with other states. I’d like to thank Leader Gregoire and the members of the conference committee, as well as all my colleagues in the House, Senate President Spilka and our partners in the Senate, for their important work on this legislation.”

“This is simple: everyone deserves equal pay for equal work, regardless of your gender, race, ethnicity, or background,” said Senate President Karen E. Spilka (D-Ashland). “It is far too common for women and people of color to be paid less than their coworkers nationwide, and Massachusetts is not immune. By passing this bill, the Legislature stands united behind every worker—and with every business—in our steadfast commitment to the fundamental principle that every person has the right to be treated and compensated fairly in the workplace. I’m thankful to Senator Jehlen for her work on the conference committee, each of the conferees, Speaker Mariano, and our partners in the House for their work on this critical legislation.”

“I am grateful for Speaker Mariano’s leadership and my colleagues support of this legislation. This bill is a huge step in the right direction for workforce equity in Massachusetts,” said Representative Jessica Giannino (D-Revere). “As a woman who has experienced many different sectors of the workplace, I have seen firsthand how vital this bill is and as a board member on the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators I am proud that this priority has been passed.”

“I am pleased to support this important legislation which aims to bring balance the rights of workers to equal pay with the right to contract. Prospective employees will have confidence that their compensation will match their merit and qualifications and that they are not being unlawfully paid due to their gender,” said Representative Jeffrey Rosario Turco (D-Winthrop).

The bill requires employers with more than 100 employees to share their federal wage and workforce data reports with the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, which would then be responsible for compiling and publishing aggregated wage and workforce date to help identify gender and racial wage gaps by industry. The bill makes a necessary update, following the Equal Pay Act of 2016, to prevent earned wage adjustments from triggering the anti-spiking provision.

In Greater Boston, the 2023 gender wage gap was 21 cents, according to the Boston Women’s Workforce Council. This gap becomes more pronounced when comparing white men and women of color, where Black/African American women face a 54-cent wage gap, Hispanic/Latina women face a 52-cent wage gap, and Asian women face a 19-cent wage gap.