An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency, which has multiple requirements for employers, is bringing significant changes to Massachusetts job markets. Larger employers have an upcoming reporting deadline on February 3, and starting this fall, employers with 25+ employees in Massachusetts must provide salary range information in job postings, when offering internal promotions, and upon request.
Reporting Requirements
Some employers must provide the Commonwealth with workforce data that they are already required to provide the federal government. The new requirements apply to employers (a) with at least 100 employees in Massachusetts at any time during the prior calendar year that are (b) subject to federal requirements to file a wage data report. Guidance from the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development has clarified that there are no obligations imposed on employers to change or augment their EEO filings; they are simply required to file an exact copy of the EEO report as-filed with the federal government. Such reports are confidential (they are not subject to public records requests) and will only be used as data points to prepare aggregated statistical figures.
The first deadline is on February 3, 2025. Employers subject to the reporting requirement must submit their EEO-1, EEO-3, and EEO-5 reports to the Commonwealth. The Secretary of the Commonwealth has established the following website for electronic submissions: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/corporations/eeo-data-reports.htm. (The statutory deadline is February 1, but because that is a Saturday this year, reports are accepted through the following Monday.)
The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development will be publishing aggregate wage and workforce data on its website.
Pay Transparency Requirements
Far-reaching change is coming this fall. Effective October 29, 2025, any employer with at least 25 employees in the Commonwealth will be required to include pay range information in job postings. Additionally, pay range information must be provided to employees who are offered promotions and transfers to new positions, and current employees are entitled to receive the pay range for their current positions upon request.
A pay range must be the annual salary range, or the hourly wage range, that the employer “reasonably and in good faith” expects to pay for the role.
These new obligations also come with new anti-retaliation protections. Employers cannot take retaliatory action—including, but not limited to, termination—against employees or job applicants who have taken action to enforce these new rights, who have made a complaint to the employer or the attorney general about an alleged violation of these obligations, or who have initiated or testified in a proceeding brought under this law.
The attorney general has exclusive enforcement authority for basic compliance obligations, but employees who face retaliation could sue directly. Notably, violations of this law do not carry automatic treble damages (which is the case for other wage violations in Massachusetts).
