On July 31, 2024, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy signed into law the Frances Perkins Workplace Equity Act, which has pay reporting requirements and transparency requirements that will take effect in 2025.
Reporting Requirements
The first requirement under the new act requires covered employers to submit annual reporting on race, ethnicity, sex, and job category. The act specifically defines a “covered employer” as an employer who is subject to the federal equal employment opportunity (EEO) wage data reporting requirements and has 100 or more employees in Massachusetts at any time during the prior calendar year.
The reporting requirements vary depending on the business type and mirror the federal reporting requirements. There are four different forms: EEO-1 (private employers), EEO-3 (local unions), EEO-4 (state and local governments), and EEO-5 (public elementary and secondary school systems).
- Employers subject to federal EEO-1 data report filing requirements must submit to the state secretary their report annually, with the first report due on February 1, 2025, for the prior year.
- Labor unions subject to federal EEO-3 data report filing requirements and public elementary and secondary schools subject to federal EEO-5 data report filing requirements are required to submit to the state secretary their reports in each odd year starting on February 1, 2025, covering the most recent filing period.
- State and local governments subject to federal EEO-4 forms are required to submit to the state secretary their reports in each even year starting on February 1, 2026, covering the most recent filing period.
Penalties for Noncompliance With Reporting Requirements
The law expressly states that the attorney general has exclusive jurisdiction to enforce the reporting requirements and may obtain injunctive or declaratory relief. For a first offense, the employer receives a warning. After the first offense, the employer is subject to monetary fines—not more than $500 for a second offense and not more than $1,000 for a third offense. After three offenses, the employer will be subject to civil fines increasing in amount, but no violations will result in treble damages.
Pay Transparency Disclosures and Effective Date
Beginning on October 29, 2025 (extended from the original date in light of constitutional requirements), employers with 25 or more employees in Massachusetts will need to include in any job posting or advertisement intended to recruit job applicants for a particular and specific employment position the annual salary or hourly wage range that the employer reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for the position at the time of posting. In addition to job postings, employers will need to disclose pay range in two other circumstances:
- When an employee is offered a promotion or transfer to a new position with different job responsibilities; and
- Upon request to an employee already holding the specific position or to an applicant for that position.
While the act was signed into law on July 31, 2024, with an expectation that it would be effective one year later with respect to the disclosure obligations (on July 31, 2025), the Massachusetts Constitution requires an additional 90-day waiting period, making the effective date October 29, 2025.
Penalties and Remedies for Noncompliance With Pay Transparency Disclosure Requirements
Violations are subject to the same penalties set forth above regarding noncompliance with the reporting requirements (i.e., a warning followed by monetary fines). For enforcement purposes of the disclosure requirement, an “offense” constitutes one or more job postings for positions made by the same employer within a 48-hour period. In other words, each post made within a 48-hour period is not considered a separate offense.
The law also prohibits a covered employer from discharging, discriminating, or retaliating against an employee or applicant because “the employee or applicant has: (i) taken action to enforce their rights pursuant to this section; (ii) made any complaint to their employer, agent of their employer or the attorney general regarding an alleged violation of this section; (iii) instituted, or caused to be instituted, any proceeding under this section; or (iv) testified or is about to testify in any such proceeding.”1
Like the reporting requirements, violations of the reporting and disclosure requirements are not subject to treble damages under the Massachusetts Wage Act.
Next Steps
With only a few months left, applicable employers should start preparing their EEO workforce demographics and pay data forms for submission to the state by February 1, 2025, for the 2024 calendar year. Employers should also start reviewing their job postings and pay scales to ensure they are prepared for compliance starting October 29, 2025.
If you have any questions regarding the content of this alert, please contact Carolyn Marcotte Crowley, partner, at ccrowley@barclaydamon.com; Giuliana Hathaway, associate, at ghathaway@barclaydamon.com; or another member of the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice Area.
1M.G.L. c. 149, § 105F(e).