According to a recent news item from the Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA), Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey recently signed legislation aimed at closing gender and racial wage gaps in the Commonwealth.
Known as the Frances Perkins Workplace Equity Act, the law was supported by the MMA and many other groups.
The law requires Massachusetts employers with 25 or more employees to disclose reasonable wage or salary ranges when hiring for a position — something that is already a common practice across local government.
The law also requires all U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports to be collected by the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth and aggregated by the state’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
Like many employers, cities and towns are subject to certain federal reporting requirements, and municipalities with 100 or more employees must file reports with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. These biennial filings (EEO-4 reports) cover workforce demographic data, including data by race, ethnicity, sex, job category, and salary band.
The wage equity law creates a process for the state to compile and analyze the aggregated EEOC report data. It also seeks to avoid any administrative burden on local officials by simply requiring the submission of any existing EEOC report to the secretary of state.
The House and Senate passed similar versions of a wage equity bill last fall, and a conference committee released a final compromise bill on July 24, which was quickly passed and sent to the governor.
The requirements for salary ranges on job postings will go into effect in the fall of 2025, while submissions of federal EEO reports will begin in 2025 for school districts (EEO-5), and in 2026 for municipalities (EEO-4).
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office has said that it will conduct a public awareness campaign over the next year to provide information to employers regarding the new requirements of the law.
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