By Samantha Halem, Julia Russo, Sarah Ruter, Catherine Reuben, Alicia Ward August 13, 2024
On July 31, 2024, Massachusetts joined multiple other states that have enacted pay transparency laws when Governor Healey signed House Bill 4890 (Chapter 141 of the Acts of 2024) which will require Massachusetts employers to disclose certain salary information to employees, applicants, and the Commonwealth. Called the “Francis Perkins Pay Equity Act,” (FPPEA) the new law adds two new sections to the Commonwealth’s wage and hour laws, mandating compensation-related disclosures and reporting requirements. Specifically, employers with 25 or more employees will now have to disclose salary ranges to employees and applicants, and employers with 100 or more employees in Massachusetts will have additional reporting requirements.
The wave of salary transparency laws that has swept across the country in the last few years is intended to be an important step toward closing wage gaps and ensuring pay equity. In enacting FPPEA, Massachusetts joins numerous jurisdictions such as California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington as well as eight cities/counties (Cincinnati, OH, Toledo, OH, Jersey City, NJ, Ithaca, NY, New York City, NY, Albany and Westchester counties), which have already passed similar variations of pay transparency laws. Even Congress has begun to broach the topic, with a federal salary transparency legislative initiative that was introduced in 2023.
As discussed further below, FPPEA has two main components: (1) pay range disclosure requirements and (2) reporting requirements.
(1) Pay Range Disclosure Requirements
Effective October 29, 2025, employers with 25 or more employees in Massachusetts will be required to disclose pay ranges on three occasions:
“Pay range” is defined 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 that time.” According to that definition and unlike some other jurisdictions, an employer’s disclosures do not need to include additional compensation information, such as bonuses, commissions, or benefits.
(2) Reporting Requirements
Employers with 100 or more employees in Massachusetts, that are already legally required to submit federal wage data reports (EEO-1, EEO-3, EEO-4 or EEO-5), must now additionally submit these reports to the Commonwealth, which will aggregate and publish the data by industry. Individual employer EEO reports are not considered “public records” subject to disclosure under the Massachusetts Public Records Law, but employers should note that such records may still be subject to discovery production in litigation. Private employers must provide this information annually, while unions, state and local governments, and elementary and secondary school systems must submit their reports every other year. The first EEO-1 reports will be due by February 1, 2025.
Enforcement
The Massachusetts Attorney General has exclusive jurisdiction to enforce FPPEA by seeking injunctive or declaratory relief. Unlike some of the pay transparency statutes in other states, there is no private right of action for employees or applicants. Covered employers that violate FPPEA will be subject to a warning for the first offense, and, for the first two years after enactment, will be provided with an opportunity to cure a violation. Thereafter, the law carries progressive fines for any further violations, including:
Importantly, violations are specifically not subject to treble damages under the Massachusetts Wage Act.
Six months after the law is enacted, the Attorney General is required to mount a public awareness campaign to educate employers about the new law.
Intersection with MEPA
Notably, this law buttresses the Commonwealth’s previously enacted legislation aimed to achieve pay equalization, the Massachusetts Equal Pay Act (MEPA). In 1945, Massachusetts became the first state in the country to pass such a law. Employers will remember that the 2018 amendments to MEPA contained an affirmative defense provision designed to proactively eliminate the wage gap. Specifically, employers will not be liable under MEPA if they can show that they conducted a good faith, reasonable self-evaluation of their pay practices within the last three years. In the lead-up to FPPEA’s effective date, we recommend that employers who have not conducted a MEPA pay audit in the last three years do so now. It has the double benefit of assessing whether pay ranges are up to date for compliance with FPPEA, while providing an affirmative defense under MEPA.
This recent legal development in Massachusetts evidences the growing national trend of pay transparency, and we anticipate that the list of participating states will not end here. Multi-state employers, or those with a full or partially remote workforce, must ensure that job postings comply with numerous state requirements within which the employer recruits or retains employees. HRW is available to assist employers with crafting job postings that comply with not only Massachusetts but all the various new state/local salary transparency laws.
Takeaways
Employers have less than a year to develop a strategy to comply with the Commonwealth’s new pay transparency requirements and their impact on the workplace. To that end, employers should:
Questions/Compliance Assistance
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