Massachusetts Salary Range Transparency Law: What Employers Need to Do Now

Massachusetts has finalized a new salary range transparency law, An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency. If you have employees whose primary place of work is in Massachusetts, or you post roles that can be performed from Massachusetts or report to a Massachusetts worksite, this law changes how you advertise jobs and how you share pay information with applicants and employees. These pay range disclosures became mandatory on October 29, 2025 and follows a pattern followed by other states.  

Who is covered and when

The law applies to public and private employers with 25 or more employees whose primary place of work was Massachusetts during the prior calendar year. Count all full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary workers. Calculate your headcount once a year by averaging the number of employees over all pay periods. 

What you must disclose

Covered employers must disclose a pay range that the employer reasonably and in good faith expects to pay at that time. 

You must:

• Include the pay range in any internal or external job posting for a specific position where the primary place of work is Massachusetts. This includes postings by third parties and for roles that can be performed remotely to a Massachusetts worksite. It also includes postings for remote workers whose primary place of work is Massachusetts. 
• Provide the pay range to any employee offered a promotion or transfer to a new position with different job responsibilities. 
• Provide the pay range to a current employee for their position upon request, even if there is no vacancy. 
• Provide the pay range to an applicant upon request. 

For positions paid by commission or piece rate, include the expected commission or piece rate range. The law does not require you to disclose bonuses or benefits in the posting. You may include a short benefits summary for context if you choose.

Overly broad ranges do not meet the good faith standard. The range should reflect what you would be prepared to pay for the role at the time of the posting. 

Which postings are covered

A covered posting is any advertisement intended to recruit applicants for a particular and specific position. This includes postings on your website, job boards, social platforms, and postings by staffing agencies or recruiters acting for you. If the job’s primary place of work is Massachusetts, the posting needs a pay range. If the job can be performed remotely to a Massachusetts worksite or by a remote employee whose primary place of work is Massachusetts, the law suggests that the posting needs a pay range. 

Anti-retaliation

As is standard for these types of laws, employers may not retaliate against an employee or applicant who requests a pay range, raises concerns, files a complaint, or participates in a proceeding under the law. 

Enforcement and penalties

The Massachusetts Attorney General enforces the law. There is no private right of action for failure to post ranges. Penalties escalate:

• First offense results in a warning. 
• Second offense can result in a fine up to $500. 
• Third offense can result in a fine up to $1,000.
• Fourth and later offenses can result in higher civil penalties under state law, up to $25,000 per violation depending on circumstances. 

For pay range disclosures, there is a two-business-day cure period through October 29, 2027. If you receive a Notice to Cure and fix the issue within two business days, no fine will issue for that violation. 

EEO data reporting for 100+ Massachusetts employees

Employers with 100 or more employees whose primary place of work is Massachusetts, and who file federal EEO reports, must submit those same EEO reports to the Secretary of the Commonwealth on the state schedule. This mirrors your federal filings and does not add new data fields. Penalties for noncompliance follow the same scale as above. There is a two-business-day cure period for reporting defects through October 29, 2026. 

Five steps to get compliant this month

Here are five things you can do right now to get into compliance.

1. Consider building a single source of truth for ranges. List every role you hire for in Massachusetts and set a reasonable, good-faith range for each based on pay bands, market data, budget, and internal equity. Identify which roles include commissions or piece rates and set those ranges as well. 
2. Clean up postings and templates. Add pay range fields to all job templates used by HR and your agencies. Update your careers site to prevent posting without a range, at least where the job is in Massachusetts. Review evergreen postings and refresh them with compliant ranges. 
3. Train your people, leaders and recruiters. Update interview guides to avoid salary history questions and to steer discussions to posted or anticipated ranges. Provide a script for responding to range requests from employees and applicants. Reinforce anti-retaliation rules.
4. Document how ranges are set. Keep notes on the inputs and rationale for each range and for final offers within the range. Track when and where ranges are posted and shared. 
5. Tighten multi-state practices. If you also hire in Connecticut or other states with similar rules, consider adopting a common national template that meets the strictest requirement you face. This reduces errors by recruiters and vendors. 

Common edge cases to plan for

Remote roles. Decide in advance whether a role can be performed from Massachusetts or reports to a Massachusetts worksite. If yes, include the range. 

Internal moves. Build a simple process to deliver the pay range when offering promotions or transfers. Include it in written offer communications. 

Commission roles. Define how you will present commission or piece rate ranges in postings so they are clear and consistent with your plan documents. 

Conclusion

If you operate in both Massachusetts and Connecticut, harmonize your job architectures, pay bands, and posting templates so your teams follow one clear playbook across borders.