Massachusetts is the latest state to join the pay transparency trend, with Governor Healy signing “An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency” into law on July 31, 2024.  It is available here: download

Beginning July 31, 2025, employers with more than 25 employees in Massachusetts must begin disclosing pay ranges for a “particular and specific employment position”:

  1. in job postings;
  2. to employees offered a promotion, transfer, or new position with different job responsibilities; and
  3. to individuals who currently hold or have applied for a given position. 

The law’s limitation to a “particular and specific employment position” is in line with the operation of similar laws in other states, which often build in protections so as not to require the disclosure of salary ranges in generalized “help wanted” postings. Similarly, this qualifier makes clear that employers are not obligated to provide pay ranges for every position in their organization, namely those unrelated to:

  1. a specific job posting,
  2. a specific promotion/transfer opportunity, or
  3. a specific job that an individual has or is applying for.

Additionally, keeping in line with language used in similar laws of other states, Massachusetts defines “pay range” 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.”

Finally, the law includes an anti-retaliation provision, making it a violation to retaliate against any employee or applicant who enforces their rights, brings a proceedings, or provides testimony related to an alleged violation of the law. While the law makes clear that a failure to disclose pay ranges as required may only be enforced by the attorney general, the language of the statute leaves open the possibility that an individual employee or applicant may be able to bring their own lawsuit against a company for violation of the anti-retaliation provision.

Employers should begin the process of developing the pay ranges necessary to comply with this law.